Asexual Propagation of Four Medicinal Greek Endemic Plants of Lamiaceae Family With Conservation Priority From The Collection of The Balkan Botanic Garden of Kroussia, N. Greece

Abstract

Conservation of endemic rare-threatened plants and sustainable exploitation of biodiversity with emphasis on medicinal-aromatic plants and plants with horticultural/ornamental value can be achieved through ex situ conservation activities. For this purpose, propagation experiments with cuttings were performed on four local Ionian endemic species with conservation priority, Stachys ionica Halácsy, Teucrium halascyanum, Thymus holosericeus Celak and Thymus plasonii Adamovic (all Lamiaceae). For propagation, softwood tip cuttings (3-5 cm) were cut at early autumn from mother plants collected from the wild and maintained in open-air mother plantations. For experimentation, the base of cuttings was immersed for 1 min in solutions of four concentrations of IBA (0, 1000, 2000 and 4000 ppm). Cuttings were placed on a peat:perlite (1:3) substrate in the bench of greenhouse heated mist system. Most suitable treatment for T. halascyanum (3 ½ weeks) proved to be 1000 ppm IBA (32.13 roots 1.72 cm long, 100% rooting). Accordingly, 2000 ppm IBA gave 100% rooting for both S. ionica (28.5 roots 1.56 cm long,) (3 weeks) and Th. holosericeus (4.4 roots 1.76 cm long) (7 weeks). T. plasonii cuttings treated with 2000 ppm IBA gave 85.71% optimum rooting with 8.67 roots 1.78 cm long.

Molecular Authentication, Propagation Trials and Field Establishment of Greek Native Genotypes of Sambucus nigra L. (Caprifoliaceae): Setting the Basis for Domestication and Sustainable Utilization

“…As such, the external hormone application between 2000-4000 ppm IBA seems to warrant consistency in high rooting rates of softwood cuttings according to the current results which probably stems from the interaction of external hormone with the cutting's internal activity of Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) for cambium differentiation and rooting induction [49,50]. Rooting rates and quality in terms of root number and length has also been shown to be enhanced by external IBA application in other Greek endemic herbaceous perennials [51]. In addition, differences in rooting quality in terms of root number and length were observed between the genotypes tested, with one genotype in particular (GR-1-BBGK-19,192) presenting higher number of roots, which is considered a valuable trait [52].…”

Prioritizing Plants around the Cross-Border Area of Greece and the Republic of North Macedonia: Integrated Conservation Actions and Sustainable Exploitation Potential

“…In every case, the median value between the two repetitions is presented in Supplementary Materials Table S5. Similarly, various external hormone application treatments of indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) were applied at concentrations of 1000-4000 ppm according to the level of lignification of the obtained cuttings from the PPs using the quick dip method [41][42][43]. Cuttings were set for rooting under mist with relative humidity (RH) > 85% within a greenhouse at ambient temperature.…”

“…Therefore, asexual propagation can be considered a useful tool in the ex-situ production of valuable plant material for conservation and natural population reinforcement [39,40] as it can be used to increase adequately the number of identical individuals per selected genotype to meet the needs of defined conservation targets or actions [20]. Such approaches most often use softwood cuttings and external hormone application at different concentration under mist and experimentation performed at various seasons following the growth pattern of the studied species (e.g., [40][41][42][43]). Additionally, plant division can be also employed, depending on the morphology of the studied species (i.e., plants forming rosettes and/or rhizomes).…”