Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Thymus, belonging to Lamiaceae family, is one of the most important medicinal genera in Iran. It has many uses in food, health care, cosmetics and especially in pharmaceutical industries. This research was aimed to investigate the germination parameters and establishment of seedlings from different accessions of Thymus species(T. daenensis, T. fedchenkoi,
T. kotschyanus, T. lancifolius, T. migricus, T. pubescens, T. transcaspicus and T. vulgaris). All the accessions are stored in Natural Resources Gene Bank of Iran. The seeds of accession were son in pots using a completely randomized design with three replications. Data were collected for thousand seed weight, seed germination percentage, seed storage time, germination rate, vegetative growth rate (2, 4, 6 and 8-leaf stage and the emergence of lateral branches), and the establishment percentage of each accession was measured in greenhouse. Unknown accessions were identified after preparing the herbarium specimens. Results indicated positive and significant correlations between 1000-seed weight and germination percentage as well as between seedling establishment and germination percentage (p<0.05); however, no significant correlation was found with emergence of leaves. The highest 1000-seed weight was observed in T. kotschyanus and T. lancifolius, respectively and the highest percentage of germination in T. pubescens. Positive and significant correlations were observed between primary and secondary seed germination percentage and germination rate; however, leaf emergence and lateral branch emergence were negatively correlated. Secondary seed germination showed significant positive correlation with germination rate (p<1% and 5%, respectively). Germination rate and leaf emergence showed positive significant correlation. There were no significant correlations between leaf emergence and lateral branch emergence of different species.
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