Rooting Comparison of Different Tamarix Ecotypes Native to Ardabil Province Under Various Hormonal Treatments

Document Type : Full Paper

Authors

• Younes Pourbeyrami hir ¹
• Vajihe Abbasi ghadi ²

¹ Department of Horticultural Science, Faculty of Agricultural Science and Natural Resourses, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili., Ardabil, Iran

² Department of Horticultural Science, Faculty of Agricultural Science and Natural Resourses, Mohaghegh Ardabili University, Ardabil, Iran

Abstract

Keywords

• Cuttings
• Dry landscape
• Native
• Rooting
• Saltcedar

20.1001.1.2008482.1402.54.2.7.4

Main Subjects

• Ornamental plant science

Extended Abstract

Introduction

    Biotic and abiotic stresses could cause changing in plants growth and development. Drought stress is one of the most common stresses that threaten a large part of the world’s lands. The genus Tamarix (tamarisk, salt cedar, taray) is composed of about 50–60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas. Tamarix is very beautiful tree in flowering time and extremely drought tolrerate, and can survive in most sever conditions such as high heat, cold, salt, heavy metals and flood. This plant has a very wide root system and could be useful in soil stablization in deserts. Nowadays, with the water crisis occurring in most parts of the word, cultivation of drought-tolerant plants such as Tamarix plants could be a suitable substitute for plants with high water demand, in the urban landscapes situated in arid and semi-arid regions.

Materials and methods

    This study was performed as a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design to investigate the effects of ecotype and hormone type on the rooting of tamarix cuttings, with 10 replications. Treatments were ecotype (9 ecotype native to Ardabil province) and different concentrations (0, 1000, 2000 and 4000 mg L-1) of Indole Acetic Acid (IAA) and Indole Botric Acid (IBA). After three months, the rooted cuttings were examined and the necessary data were recorded. The measured traits included branch number, branch length, primary root number, primary root length, longest root length, plant height, rooting percentage, branch fresh weight, branch dry weight, and root fresh and dry weight. Data were analyzed using SAS; the means comparison was performed by Duncan's test; and graphs were drawn in Excel.

Results and Discussion

    The results of the analysis of variance showed that the type of ecotype significantly (P≤0.01) affected all measured indices except root dry weight and branch fresh weight. The results of the variance also revealed that the interaction effects of ecotype and hormone on rooting percentage, branch numbers and plant height were significant at the 1% probability level. Means comparison showed that the highest and lowest rooting percentages were obtained from ecotypes 6 and 7, respectively. The highest and lowest numbers of roots were 11.69 and 2.79. The longhest shoot with an amount of 115.65 obtained from ecotype 4 while the shortest shoot with an amount of 48.70 mm belonged to ecotype 8. Morover, the results of the experiment showed that the IBA hormone affected all measured indices better than the IAA, although there were no significant differences between them.

Conclusion

    Native species naturally grow in some specific habitats and are economically more important than non-native plants. They can also tolerate different biotic and abiotic stresses. In general, this study showed that, in most investigated traits, ecotypes 4, 5 and 6 were the strongest ecotypes, which could be introduced as the most successful ecotypes for use in landscape and further adaptation studies.