Biannual Seed Yield, Viability and Germination in Commiphora wightii (Arnott) Bhandari

Commiphora wightii is an important medicinal tree of arid and semi-arid regions of India. It is commonly known as Guggal and belongs to the family Burseraceae. It is a slow growing poor viable seed producing plant; moreover, excessive destructive tapping for oleogum resin (known as guggul) has put this plant under critically endangered categories according to the IUCN. This plant produces two types of seeds, viz., black highly viable seed and white non-viable seeds. Therefore, the present study was carried out with the aim to estimate seed production in summer and winter and their viability ratios (black:white), which will be helpful in raising nurseries and large-scale plantations of Guggul. Mature seeds were collected from 647 guggal plants (10 years old) from Deesa, Gujarat, India in summer (March–July 2017) and winter (November–December 2017). There is no significant difference in percentage of plants bearing mature seeds, but the number of mature seeds per seed producing plant is significantly higher in winter (72.51 seeds) as compared with summer (10.19 seeds). The proportion of black seed in summer and winter was almost opposite, i.e., in winter 70.9% of seeds were black, whereas in summer only 30% black seeds were found. Seed germination data revealed that black seeds collected in winter showed higher seed germination (13.6%) than in summer (2.1%). No germination was recorded in summer collected white seed, whereas very low seed germination was observed in winter (1.2%) white seeds.