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Mutant violets from space invade Sha Tin

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Mutant African violets from space went on show for the first time in Hong Kong yesterday.

Eleven of these 'space violets', which are larger and have more flowers than their traditional cousins, were the centrepieces in this year's Hong Kong African Violet Exhibition.

Hong Kong African Violets Association chairwoman Maggie Yu Yuk-chu said the space violets were developed by a US company that sent 25,000 standard African violet seeds into space on a Nasa space shuttle in 1984. The seeds, which were exposed to cosmic radiation and zero-gravity conditions while they orbited the Earth for six years, were retrieved in 1990.

The 'space violets' on display at the exhibition were developed out of the original seeds, some of which had mutated.

'The space violets typically have more flowers in tighter clusters than traditional African violets,' said Ms Yu. Space violets also are easier to care for and grow faster.

Ms Yu said that while space violets became commercially available in the United States in 2001, they were not distributed in Hong Kong. 'You can buy a seedling for around US$15 but transporting it here can be difficult and expensive because the plants are quite delicate,' she said.

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