A laboratory on the continent has developed a revolutionary approach to cultivating seedlings, promising to revolutionise nature restoration and reforestation efforts.
According to a team at the John Innes Centre, their novel embryo extraction method can rapidly speed up germination times for European ash trees. The process, which can take up to six years in nature, can now be completed in around one week.
More than 2,000 seedlings have been produced for trials and research, with initial results broadly welcomed by the international nature and wildlife communities. Landowners, conservationists and even private gardeners may soon be able to take advantage of the approach.
‘Ash seed usually takes two to three years to germinate in the wild, and we have reduced this to about a week in the lab. We have produced hundreds of seedlings rapidly for experimentation, for our seed orchard or for planting in the wild,’ said Dr Elizabeth Orton (pictured), a John Innes Centre researcher and first author of the study.
‘We’ve had so much interest from both other researchers and from stakeholders keen to help restore ash populations,’ she continued. ‘One of our next steps is to develop a kitchen method so that people can do this at home, using substances that you can purchase online such as household bleach and agar to treat the seed as part of the process.’
The news comes at a time when an ash dieback epidemic is continuing to spread across Europe, leaving scars on the landscape and rendering some areas uninhabitable for the tree species. Not only does the John Innes project look to directly overcome this issue, it may also help increase understanding of genetics and mechanisms trees need to become pest and pathogen resistant.
Propagation of these resilient tree types is most effective from seeds to preserve the broad genetic diversity in the ash family, but this is a slow process. The revolutionary new method instead sees embryos carefully removed to bypass the dormant period, cultured on agar media and then transplanted into compost as seedlings within laboratory days. Then, after 10 months in a glasshouse, they are ready to be panted outside.
‘This propagation method is a big step forward and the interest I have had has been very positive,’ Dr Orton continued. ‘People from all over the international research community are working on restoring ash populations together and our contribution has added to the atmosphere of hope that we can speed up natural selection and transform the fortunes of ash trees. With the modifications we are making the technique could be adopted by conservation volunteers and other non-specialists to support local efforts in growing diverse ash populations for restoration projects.’
Image: Phil Robinson / John Innes Centre
More on Biodiversity & Climate Change:
1.2m English homes at risk of flooding identified and mapped
10 million trees have now transformed England’s industrial heartland
Spring means dandelions are in, chronic inflammatory diseases are out