Abstract

Arnebia benthamii (Wall. ex G.Don.) Johnst., Boraginaceae, is an important Himalayan alpine herb with tremendous medicinal properties. The species is facing the pressure of overexploitation and is ranked as a critically endangered species. In an effort to develop a strategy to conserve and cultivate the species, the present study of in vitro seed germination was carried out. The study depicted that the seeds have a very high viability (98%) and contain oil as the reserve food material. The seeds imbibe water nicely and there is no physical dormancy imposed by the seed coat. Among the many pretreatments used to increase percentage germination and reducing mean germination time (MGT), scarification (seed coat removal) proved most effective. The scarification treatment enhanced seed germination to 96.66% and reduced mean germination time to 4.03 days, followed by Kinetin (50 ppm) with 90.83% seed germination and MGT of 4.15 days, as against control, with 31.66% germination and MGT of 9.18 days. Furthermore, when the scarified seeds were treated with seed coat extract, the percentage germination depleted drastically to 28.33% which is suggestive of the fact that the seed coat contains the chemical inhibitors which do have a regulatory or inhibitory effect on seed germination. The study also revealed that the seeds do not need chilling for witnessing germination.

Key words: Arnebia benthamii, Kashmir Himalayas, conservation, seed germination, alpine.