Department of Botany, Berhampur University, Berhampur, Orissa, India.
National Seminar of Plant Physiology ‘
Laboratory experiments were conducted to study the effects of aqueous leaf litter leachate of Eucalyptus globulus Labill on seed germination and seedling growth of an improved cultivar of fingermillet (Eleusine coracana Geartn Cv AK.P -2.). Freshly fallen down leaf litters were collected from the understorey of Eucalyptus plants, thoroughly washed with water, soaked @ 200 g per litre in distilled water for 72 h and filtered. It was considered as 20% leachate. Different dilutions were made from the 20% leachates on the day of use. Seeds pre-soaked for longer duration exhibited higher adverse effect on both seed germination and seedling growth than shorter duration of soaking. Chlorophyll content of leaves and carbohydrate, protein and nucleic acids content in both shoo and root were significantly reduced by the all concentrations of leachate tried.
