Seed germination as the major conservation issue of endemic Iranian salvia species

In Iran, there is a high diversity of salvia species and accessions which includes 70 species that 40% of them are endemic. The objective of this investigation was to find a practical treatment for germination of salvia species, particularly, endemics and to find conservation issues and appropriate approaches. We observed that there was a huge diversity in color (RGB channels), seed area and 1000-seed weights among the population in this study, including 60 accessions (23 species) that thirteen of them (five species) are endemic of Iran. These accessions were soaked in four gibberllic acid (GA3) levels (0, 100, 150 and 200 mg/L). The germination rate and percentage of 62% of accessions were, extremely, increased in response to the GA3 treatment; nonetheless, some accessions did not germinate at all which indicates that there are demands for more efforts to conserve these accessions. Germination percentage of endemic species was significantly lower than non-endemic ones, indicating a serious concern for their conservation. A significant correlation between the 1000-seed weights and area under germination percentage curve (AUGPC) was found that indicates seeds were evolved to have more storage to survive for a long time until germination. Key words: Conservation, endemic, Iran salvia diversity, germination, gibberllic acid (GA3).