r. narimani

Ferulago (Ferulago ssp.) medicinal plant belongs to Apiaceae family and is endemic of Iran. Species of this genus are extremely endangered, considering the seed dormancy, excess harvesting and environmental stresses such as drought. By considering this plant as a valuable medicinal-rangeland plant, its production and reclamation is an essential task. This investigation was done to optimize micropropagation of two endemic species of Ferulago, included F. angulate and F. subvelutina. Maximum percentage of callus induction in F. angulata specie was reached as 100%, using rootlet explant (under treatments of 0 BAP + 1 NAA, 0 BAP + 1.5 NAA and 0 BAP + 2 NAA mg/l) and also true leaf explants (under treatments of 0.5 BAP + 0.5 NAA and 1 BAP + 2 NAA mg/l), and in F. subvelutina specie using true leaf explants (under treatments of 0.5 BAP + 0.5 NAA and 1 BAP + 2 NAA mg/l) respectively as 72.33 and 71.66%. The combined application of the cytokinin and auxin phytohormones has been shown to be effective in regenerating Ferulago species; so that the maximum regeneration was reached as 53.33 and 46.66% in F. angulata respectively under treatments of 0.5 BAP + 0.2 NAA mg/l and 0.5 BAP + 0.4 NAA mg/l and so on as 53.33 and 60 percent in F. subvelutina respectively under treatments of 1 BAP + 0.2 NAA mg/l and 1 BAP + 0.4 NAA mg/l. The best rooting treatment in both species was selected as the ½ MS cultural medium included 0.5 mg/l IBA. The adaptation stage was done in a mixture of soil, peat soil and sand with a weight ratio of 1: 1: 1, in which the total of 80% of regenerated plants from tissue culture, were successfully adapted to the outside environment.

The genus Ferulago includes multi-purpose plants with valuable pharmaceutical, industrial, and soil protective functions which are native to Iran and recently have been classified as endangered plants. Ferulago subvelutina Rech.F. is an endemic species to Iran and there is little information about its ecological, physiological, and morphological characteristics. Due to the importance of this species, the present study was conducted to investigate the mentioned characteristics and evaluate the antioxidant activity of three ecotypes in the natural distribution areas (including Izman-e Olya, Izman-e Sofla, and Darkesh) in North Khorasan province, Iran. Investigation of the plant growth stages (Izman-e Sofla ecotype) showed that its vegetative growth began with increasing temperature in the second decade of April. Full flowering begins in the second decade of July and continues until the first decade of August with decreasing rainfall and increasing temperature. In the third decade of July, the plants produce seeds and the seed dispersal begins in the third decade of August. It grows in altitude ranged 1360-1137 m above sea level, and it grows in soil with a pH of 7.7-7.81, organic carbon of 0.31-1.73%, loamy to sandy loamy texture, with average annual temperature of 13.6°C and annual rainfall 354.56 mm. Study of morphological traits showed that ecotype 3 (Darkesh) had higher values of plant height (48.80 cm), crown large and small diameter (98.60 and 93.40 cm), number of leaves per plant (4.67 pcs), and leaf length and width (58.1 and 52.5 cm), than that for other ecotypes (Izman-e Olya and Izman-e Sofla). The studied ecotypes had lower antioxidant activity than ascorbic acid as a control (13.97 μg ml-1), of which ecotype 2 (Izman-e Sofla) with an IC50 level of 566.72 μg ml-1 is noticeable due to its antioxidant activity compared to other ecotypes. Therefore, due to the importance of medicinal-rangeland species of F. subvelutina, the results of the current study could be effective in maintaining plant survival, breeding, and domestication, and also because of the high antioxidant activity of this species, could be used in the food industry.

With attention to the native landscape design value and the using of grasses which play a crucial role in the urban landscape, we carried out two experiments in germinator condition. This investigation was conducted to explore effects of hydro and osmopriming on germination and seedling growth of Lolium rigidum. The first experiment was carried out as completely randomized design with 4 treatments and replications. The treatments include: dry seed (control) and seed soaking in distilled water in three times 12, 24 and 48 hours, respectively. The second factorial experiment was carried out as completely randomized design with four replications.  First factors included three levels of priming (seeds treated with distilled water, seeds treated with KNo3 0.2% and NaCl 45 dS/m), the second factor included three levels of time (12, 24 and 48 hours). In this research some seed germination indices such as germination percentage, germination speed, length of root and shoot, fresh and dry weight of root and shoot, mean germination time and vigor index were measured. The results of the first experiment showed that the effect of seed priming with distilled water was significant (P<0.01) than control at all times on most traits. The results of the second experiment showed that osmopriming especially KNo3 for 12 hours improved the rate and percentage of germination and growth of the seedling. Totally, osmopriming had more significant effect than control and hydropriming.