Abstract

Role of some auxins, indol-3-butyric acid (IBA) and α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) has been examined for their stimulatory effects on adventitious root formation in stem cuttings of Ginkgo biloba as well as on subsequent growth and survival of these cutting raised plantlets. Lower concentration of IBA (10.0 µM) was found to be the most effective treatment as it not only induced maximum rooting (88.89%) but also enhanced number of roots, length of roots and length of longest root to the maximum. Further, the growth performance of these cutting raised plantlets, via control and IBA treatment (best treatment), was compared. It was found that the IBA treated plantlets were morphologically healthy in terms of their shoot height, diameter of shoot, number of nodes per cutting, number of leaves/node and number of branches per cutting than the control plants. Besides this, the survival rate of IBA treated plantlets was 100% in comparison to control where it was 87.5%. Therefore it was concluded that IBA treatment not only improve the percent rooting but also improve the subsequent growth and survival rate of the plantlets of G. biloba.

Key words: Auxins, indol-3-butyric acid (IBA); rare species, propagation, stems cuttings, survival.