India’s First Seed Germination Database

News: India is developing its first-ever seed germination database to help farmers, scientists, and foresters select the right species for climate-resilient agriculture, forestry, and ecological restoration. India’s First Seed Germination Database.

About India’s First Seed Germination Database

• It is a free-access database, offering more than 1,000 germination techniques for 465 native plant species.
• Launched by: It is an initiative launched by the Ecological Restoration Alliance-India (ERA-I).
  • Partners: Auroville Botanical Gardens, the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), and the Wildlife Trust of India.
• Aim: It intends to make it easier for restoration practitioners, nursery managers, and native plant enthusiasts to be more successful with growing native plants in nurseries.
• Significance: It will help India to fulfill its Pledge under the Bonn Challenge to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land.
  • The Bonn Challenge is a global initiative launched in 2011 to restore degraded and deforested lands, intending to bring 350 million hectares under restoration by 2030.

• Native plants included: Aegle marmelos (wood apple), Bauhinia racemosa (beedi leaf tree), Canthium coromandelicum (Coromandel boxwood), Daphniphyllum neilgherrense (Nilgiri Daphne-leaf), Elaeodendron glaucum (Ceylon tea), Ficus benghalensis (banyan), Gmelina arborea (white Kashmir teak), Hopea indica (Malabar ironwood), Ixora pavetta (torch wood tree), Justicia adhatoda (Malabar nut), Knema attenuata (wild nutmeg), Lawsonia inermis (henna), Madhuca longifolia (mahua), Vachellia nilotica (babool), Withania somnifera (ashwagandha), Ximenia americana (hog plum), and Ziziphus mauritiana (Indian jujube).