SEED SOURCE DETERMINES GERMINATION AND SURVIVABILITY IN SAUSSUREA OBVALLATA (DC.) EDGEW. AN ENDEMIC HERB OF INDIAN HIMALAYAN REGION, INDIAVijay Kant Purohit, Pradeep Dobhal, Bhagat Singh Mengwal, Jaidev Chauhan, Mohan Chandra Nautiyal, Anant Ram Nautiyal and Pratti PrasadAbstract The present study aims to develop conservation protocol for an endangered alpine medicinal herb Saussurea obvallata (DC.) Edgew. (Sacred lotus) through seeds and to find out the impact of seed source, seed mass and pre-treatments on germination parameters and seedling survivability. Seeds were collected from two locations of Uttarakhand i.e., Bedni (BN) and Sundardunga (SD), seed mass for each source were recorded and seeds were pre-treated with different pre-sowing treatments, i.e. GA3 (GA), KNO3 (KN) and Thiourea (TU) and kept in seed germinator (SG) (Temperature 25.0±2.0 °C and RH 80%) and Greenhouse (Temperature 21.5±3.30 °C and RH 65-80%). Seeds from SD were found 34% longer (p<0.001), 22% wider (p = 0.01) and 56% heavier (p<0.001) followed by higher germination and survivability in comparison to VN seeds. Under Seed germinator and Greenhouse the seeds from SD germinate 2 days earlier than VN seeds followed by higher germination percentage, seedling morphology and biomass. The seedling length and biomass showed significant positive correlation with seed mass. The present study suggests that healthy seeds determine higher germination and survivability, which may beneficial for designing the conservation strategies for endangered plant species. |