In vitro seed germination and seedlings development of Syngonanthus elegans and Syngonanthus elegantulus

Abstract

Syngonanthus elengans and S. elegantulus are native species of the Eriocaulaceae family. Both are important cut flowers commercialized as dried flowers to ornamental and handicrafts purposes. Because of predatory extractive exploration, their native populations are decreasing. In order to help avoid that, the establishment of propagated techniques, as micropropagation, could be used for efficient multiplication of these plants for seedlings production and maintenance of germplasm banks. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro seed germination and development of S. elegans and S. elegantulus seedlings on different salt concentrations of WPM medium. To this study, 4 lots with 50 seeds were placed on culture medium consisting of only deionized water solidified with 8 g L-1 agar. During these 30 days the number of seeds germinated was daily recorded. The obtained seedlings were placed in 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% (full) salt concentrations of WPM medium. After 30 days, the number of leaves, length of seedlings, number of roots and length of roots were evaluated. The percentage of S. elegans and S. elegantulus seeds germination was 73 and 89%, respectively. S. elegans seedlings produced 5.2 leaves on WPM 75% diluted. The WMP media at 66% diluted produced seedlings with 13.7 mm in length and high number of roots. For S. elegantulus, the best results for length of seedlings, number of leaves and number of roots were all obtained on complete WPM medium (100%).