Abstract:
The rapid depletion of floral resources in the northern Ethiopian highlands, driven by
anthropogenic activities, has resulted to a significant decline in biodiversity, with some species
on the verge of local extinction. Understanding the status of plant species along different factors
is essential in the management of the forest Patches. This study was conducted to develop a
Macro propagation experiment of six indigenous (Ficus thonningii Blume, Ficus vasta Forssk,
Acanthus sennii Chiove, Mimusops kummel A.DC, Syzygium guineense (Willd.) DC,
Acokanthera shimperi (A.DC.)) and one exotic (Ficus benjamina L) plant species at Bahir Dar
University. The stem cuttings of those selected plant species was treated with integrated 0.4%
Indole-3-Butyric Acid (IBA) +different types of growth media. A randomized complete design
was applied with four replications. Each set of IBA treated cuttings was inserted into each type
of rooting media and was replicated four times. The rooting media such as sand alone, soil alone
and mix (containing a mixture of Soil: Sand (1:1 ratio), Soil alone + IBA, Sand alone + IBA,
Soil: Sand (1:1 ratio) + IBA was used for studying the rooting behavior of the plant species.
Days to bud sprout, Percent sprouting, leaf length, Leaf area, Numbers of leaf, branch number,
Numbers of roots, root length, number of leaf, and chlorophyll content of individual cutting was
recorded. The collected data was analyzed statistically by using IBM SPSS statistics software
(version 27.0) and each data were assessed by multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) and
Tukey post-hoc test at P < 0.05. The results showed that the stem cutting grown under river
sand+red soil+0.4%IBA treatment significantly affect days to sprout, percentage sprouting, leaf
length, leaf width, number of leaves, number of branches, root length, number of roots, and
chlorophyll content to all species examined. Therefore the findings underscore the potential of
semi hardwood stem cuttings treated with 0.4% IBA in the mix (river sand+red soil+0.4%IBA)
for large-scale propagation of these trees.
Key words/Phrases: exotic species, growth media, indigenous species, Indole-3-Butyric Acid
(IBA), Macro propagation, stem cuttings.