Studies on in vitro germination on endemic Salvia L. species

Abstract

This study used seeds of two endemic sage plants (Salvia siirtica and Salvia kronenburgii) as a starting material. Mucilage causes dormancy in the seeds of these plants. Therefore, it is important to improve the germination performance of these plants’ seeds, and in this study, some treatments were applied to the seeds before or during sowing. To this end, sodium hypochlorite, ethyl alcohol, gibberellic acid, seed cracking, removal of the seed coat, pre-cold treatment, and sulfuric acid treatments were applied to the seeds of the two species separately or in combination, and their germination performances were investigated in comparison with a control group. Considering the results higher germination rates were obtained for both plants compared to the control group in all treatments except sulfuric acid treatments. The best germination rate for both plants was obtained from the treatments where the seed coat was mechanically removed. In this treatment, the germination rate in S. siirtica increased 3.3 times, while it increased 2.4 times in S. kronenburgii compared to the control group. Additionally, GA treatments for S. siirtica and cold pre-treatments for S. kronenburgii significantly increased germination rates. In light of these results, the removal of the seed coat, gibberellic acid, and cold pre-treatment effectively broke dormancy in sage seeds and increased germination rates.