Germination improvement in Swertia angustifolia: a high value medicinal plant of Himalaya.

摘要

This paper deals with the improvement in seed germination of S. angustifolia via various hormonal treatments (gibberellic acid (GA3), IAA and KNO3). The germination of the species under controlled conditions was low (<32.0%). GA3 was found to be the best with respect to germination (96.0%) and reducing mean germination time (7.6 days), followed by KNO3 (81.3%; 8.4 days) and IAA (66.0%; 16.6 days). A high degree of variation with regard to the germination percentage and mean germination time in different populations and treatments was recorded. The possible reasons for such variations are discussed..