Flowers used to decorate the main platform at Double Ten National Day celebrations in Taipei yesterday were all from plants cultivated in Taiwan, the Council of Agriculture said.
One of the featured flowers was a split-leaf philodendron called “Kaohsiung No. 1: Twilight,” which was being displayed publicly for the first time, the council said.
Decorations for the celebration were designed to highlight Taiwan’s rich and varied environments and show that the nation is a habitat for colorful and diversified plants, it said.
Photo: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei Times
Taiwan has so far obtained variety rights — a type of intellectual property right to protect varieties of plants — for 1,484 plants, of which 80 percent are flowers, the council said.
Vanda orchids cultivated in Pingtung County, moth orchids from Tainan, flamingo flowers from Kaohsiung, bromeliads from Changhua County and Oncidium from Taichung were among some of the notable flowers, it said.
Floral arrangements for this year’s Double Ten National Day celebration incorporated the beauty and cultural significance of Taiwan’s ecology, the Taiwan Florists’ Transworld Delivery Association said, adding that it worked with the Council of Agriculture to use an image of Taiwan as the framework of the design.
A stage design team used flowers cultivated in Taiwan to make a 20m-long rostrum, with the layout highlighting the research and creative achievements of the floral industry, the association said.
The team selected flowers and plants from different altitudes, including foliage from the tropical plains, ferns from forests, woody plants from the mountains and hills, and Taiwanese orchids and flamenco flowers, it said.
Association chairman Sun Ming-hong (孫銘鴻) said the floral designs for this year’s celebration were made possible through the council’s support, adding that flowers selected for the decorations were all the latest varieties bred from academic research institutions and agricultural improvement farms.
They include vanda orchids with orange spots, Oncidium, rainbow pink, Nephrolepis cordifolia and soft-thorn euphorbia, he said.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS