“…These indicate that the effect of spaceflight differs between different species or strains of plants. Flowering plants (purple shamrock, scarlet sage, garden petunia, orchids) with brighter flowers, unpredictable flower colour pattern and more extended flowering periods and more tolerant to insects and pathogens as well as vegetables (chili pepper, cucumber, eggplant, tomato and lotus) with higher yields and contents of vitamins and elements have been developed through the space-induced mutation breading strategy (Li et al ., 1999; Yan et al ., 2002; Huai et al ., 2005; He et al ., 2006; Liu et al ., 2008). China has officially approved several new varieties of crops, including rice, wheat, pepper, tomato, alfalfa, sesame and cotton, developed by space breeding techniques and successfully planted on large scales (He et al ., 2006; Liu et al ., 2008).…”