Abstract
Alepidea amatymbica is used as a herbal medicine for the treatment of various diseases. As a result of its high medicinal value, this plant is being overexploited by herbal traders with little attention being paid to its conservation, which could lead to its extinction. Cultivation of Alepidea amatymbica was conducted to determine the appropriate planting depth and rhizome fragment length for the growth of this plant. The experiment was laid out in a Complete Randomized Block Design (CRBD) with two factors in a 6 × 3 factorial design. There were six levels of fragment length (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 cm) and three levels of burial depth (2.5, 5 and 7.5 cm). Emergence rate, number of leaves, leaf area, and plant height, number of florets, rhizome length gain, rhizome weight gain, shoot moisture, and rhizome moisture were measured as growth parameters. The best overall yield in terms of plant height, shoot emergence, rhizome weight gain, number of florets and number of leaves was observed in 7.5 cm planting depth at 6 cm rhizome length. Four- centimetre rhizome length had the highest leaf area of 111.9 ± 3.5 cm2, 101.3 ± 3.5 cm2, 105 ± 3.5 cm2 at 2.5, 5, 7.5 cm planting depth respectively. Shorter fragment lengths showed high potential for vegetative propagation in terms of rhizome length gain at all burial depths. These results suggest that A. amatymbica can regenerate from buried rhizomes and they may contribute to the establishment of a protocol for propagation that could help in conservation of this plant to avoid its extinction
Highlights
The intensive harvesting of wild medicinal plants has resulted in over-exploitation, which is a primary threat to biodiversity [1]
The present study showed that planting depth and rhizome fragment length influenced the growth and development of leaves, as it was observed that an increase in planting depth increased the number of leaves
The results indicated that leaf area at 7.5 cm planting depth, from 1–3 cm rhizomes were higher compared to other burial depths
Summary
The intensive harvesting of wild medicinal plants has resulted in over-exploitation, which is a primary threat to biodiversity [1]. Over-exploitation of wild medicinal plants is mainly for commercial trade, which has become a form of self-employment in many rural areas [2]. Reported that medicinal plant species where underground parts are used are being exploited in natural habitats. Alepidea amatymbica is one such plant species that is heavily harvested and threatened by trade [4]. A. amatymbica is widely distributed in the grassland of the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga Provinces of South Africa and other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries, such as Swaziland, Lesotho and Zimbabwe. The plant generally grows in riparian zones, along drainage lines, and forest margins at about 850–2500 mm above sea level [5]
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