Effect of provenance variation and temperature on seed germination of Himalayan Silver Birch (Betula utilis D. Don) in Central Himalaya

摘要

Betula Wills is considered a keystone species of timberline zone, sensitive to climate change and grows in moist conditions under unique habitat and also has medicinal, sociocultural and religious value to the people inhabited in the central Himalayan region. The effect of different treatments and photoperiodic conditions (light, dark and light/dark) at different temperature (15, 25 C) were examined to assess the performance of gennination of Betula wills. The results exhibited that viability of fresh collected seeds were found maximum under TTC (2, 3, 5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride) staining method however, it declined under storage condition at 41)C with time. The highest germination percentage (67%) was achieved for the seeds collected from Niti provenance (3662masl) with a mean germination time (MGT) of 28 days, when the seeds were subjected to constant dark conditions at 25 C temperature. Pre-chilling treatment reduced the germination of the seeds. Germination was improved significantly at 25 C temperature under dark and control conditions. The overall findings of the present study highlighted that dark condition is more favorable to the seed germination of B. wills as compared to light and light/dark conditions. The study also showed that optimum temperature (25 C) and dark condition has positive effect on seed germination of B. utilis even without pre-treatments.