Seedling Biomass, Seed Germination Responses and Cytology of Hagenia Abyssinica (Bruce) J.F. Gmel.

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1998-06

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Seeds (botanical fruit) of Hagenia abyssinicn (BnTc~)):I:.Qip.~l.,COllect~d fr6~i s~~eral site; , , , , were used to study germination response of the same species to different concentrations of gibberellic acid, kinetin, glucose, and vitamin B6 in the ranges of 10'3 M to 10" M. The controls were treated with distilled water. Most treatments were found to increase germination percentages of the species, in the presence of great variation among the different treatments. Of the chemicals used kinetin applied at 104 M were found to increase the germination percentages upto 80 %. Vitamin B6 applied at 10" M and gibberellic acid applied at 104 M also increased seed germination next to kinetin applied at 104 M. The results on germination percentages are discussed. In addition seedling biomass of H. abyssinica in time intervals (2, 4, and 6 months) were determined, and the results show that the shoots of the species grow at a faster rate but the root does not. Somatic chromosomes from the radicles were studied using aceto-orcein, toluidine blue, and feulgen staining techniques. Pollen fertility was examined using the cotton blue lactophenol method. Although the chromosomes were rather small and difficult to study their morphology, it was possible to count them. The chromosome number for the species is 2n =40. The number of nucleoli was determined using silver nitrate as a stain. The maximum number of nucleoli observed was six, but the majority of the cells had only a single nucleolus. Meiosis in pollen mother cells showed 20 bivalence, and meiosis was found to be highly regular. Examination on a total of 4,900 pollen grains revealed that 95- 97 percent of the pollen were fertile.

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Biology

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