|
||||
  
 
 |
USU student studies slow germination rates in native plants By
Keri Vargason He sits across the table with a full, sandy brown beard, round-wired glasses, slightly wavy brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. He begins talking using words such as, "stratification," "geophytes" and "ethnobotony." A visitor to the horticulture department sits and listens like a gracious host wanting to make the company feel welcome. Nathan Phillips, a Clarkston native, is an undergraduate student at USU conducting research on the chemical treatments to enhance germination in Perideridia gairdneir. Peri-what? Perideridia garirdneir, otherwise known as yampa, is a year-round plant native to the high mountains of the western United States. In Utah, yampa is primarily found along the Wasatch Front. Phillips' interest lies in ethnobotony: plants that have been used historically, for food purposes or to make fibers. The roots of Perideridia gairdneir were used as a staple food for Indian tribes. It received the nickname yampa after the Ute Indian band Yamparicas, which inhabited the Colorado Yampa River Valley. Roots of yampa can be eaten raw or prepared in a variety of ways, including steaming, boiling, and frying, or by drying and grinding them into flour for porridge or cakes. The roots are crunchy and have a sweet, nutty flavor and the seeds can be used as a spice. Yampa contains carotene and iron for nutritional value, is high in carbohydrates and has high protein levels. It is in the same broad family as carrots and the knowledge of carrots is used to learn how yampa grows and develops. Resembling the decorative baby's breath flower, yampa is 1 to 2 feet tall with white, umbrella shaped clusters of flowers. However, those who seek it in the wild should be careful because yampa is in the same family as, and bears some resemblance to poisonous hemlock. Phillips' first year at USU was in the education program, but he soon followed his interests and a curiosity to discover how things work and changed his major to horticulture. His main interest is native plant research. When Phillips discussed research possibilities with USU Horticulture Professor Dan Drodst, they decided upon the slow germination rates in yampa. According to Drodst, yampa was planted in the Utah Botanical Center in Kaysville, and it didn't germinate well. "We like plants that do things quickly, and after the germination experience in the Botanical Center, we decided that yampa was a good candidate for further research," Drodst said. The focus of the research is to improve the germination percentages of Perideridia garirdneir in a lab environment. The germination problem in yampa is that the embryo of a yampa seed is not fully developed even though the plant is mature, Drodst said. "Everyone has studied vegetables, but there hasn't been much research on Perideridia gairdneir," Phillips said. "An understanding of the ecological life cycle of a plant species is an important factor in its preservation. The continued regeneration of a plant population depends on many factors, which might influence the plants' reproductive process and Perideridia garirdneir has some distinct obstacles in its life cycle which merit study," Phillips said. In Phillips' first year of research, he tried to overcome yampa seed dormancy with a dry chilling period, but still had no germination, in other words the seeds did not sprout when they were expected to. In the second year of research he discovered that this dormancy could be overcome with a moist chilling period of five months and the seeds began to sprout, but very slowly. This year--in his third year of research--Phillips has been studying ways to increase the germination percentages in a lab environment. "Once we understand the germination behavior of yampa, we would have the potential of having a commercial use for it and we hope that in less than five years we will completely undertand yampa and the ways to speed it along," Drodst said. "Perideridia species are listed as rare and threatened so it is wise to conduct this research to ensure a continuous seed bank. Studying the specific germination requirements of yampa can be beneficial in its long-term preservation," Phillips said. Phillips hopes to increase the percentage in germination and discover why the germination rate is so low in yampa. In July, Phillips presented his research findings at the National Conference for the American Society of Horticulture Science and won a third-place award for undergraduate research. He aims to continue the research in graduate school in the hopes to discover more efficient germination in yampa that may one day be used as an addition to ethnobotanical gardens or native landscapes. Interest has also been shown throughout the horticulture world in the possibility of putting yampa through a breeding program focused on root enlargement, eventually becoming a food crop.
|
Archived Months:
January
1999 January
2000 January
2001 |
||