oa Viability Test For Wild Plants In Qatr

Abstract: Preservation seeds of wild plants for longest period with high viability is a great challenge in gene bank. Germination test is one of seed viability tests methods to determine percentage of seeds in an accession will germinate under favorable conditions and generate normal seedlings capable of development into reproductively complete plants. Different methods have been developed successful to determine germination of seeds especially for endanger and rare species. Germination test is an important factor in order to determine the ability of seeds to be preserved in gene bank for long term. This study showed initial germination of some wild plants which collected from wild habitat and were processed for ex-situ conservation in short-term conservation and long-term conservation units at plant genet resources unit. Seed germination tests were carried out in seed viability unit, under favorable environmental conditions for each species. The aim of this work was to evaluate the seeds germination in the first stage of ex-Situ conservation processing. Seeds were collected according to the principals and guidelines of plant genetic resources collections set by Biodiversity International and international gene banks. The germination tests process according the international conservation rules, and International Seed Testing Association. Results showed that some species gave highly germination percentage without any treatments for example: Anastatica hierochuntica (100%), Lycium shawii (85 %), Ochradenus baccatus, (65%), Blepharis edulis (70%). On the other hand other species gave low germination percentage for example: Acacia ehrenbergiana (41%), Prosopis juliflora (50%) and Citrullus colocythsis (0%). Key words:Viability, Seeds, Germination, Wild plants, Gene Bank, Qatar.