Conservation of Mantisia spathulata Schult. and Mantisia wengeri Fischer, Two Critically Endangered and Endemic Zingibers of Northeast India Sudipta S. Das Bhowmik, Suman Kumaria* and Pramod Tandon ABSTRACT Mantisia spathulata Schult and M. wengeri Fischer are critically endan- gered and endemic ornamental zingibers restricted to a few pockets of Mizoram, Northeast India. Plants are decreasing at an alarming rate due to natural calamities and few countable representatives of both species exist in their wild habitats. To develop a system for rapid mass recovery and sustain- ability of the genetic diversity of the few existing plants, seeds of both species were germinated under in vivo and in vitro conditions. In vivo germination of seeds was very low (20 and 24 for M. spathulata and M. wengeri, respec- tively). However, germination in vitro was signiicantly enhanced. A maxi- mum of 90.0 and 96.6 germination was recorded for M. spathulata and M. wengeri within 2 wk in MS medium supplemented with 4.3 μM and 7.2 μM GA 3 , respectively. Seedlings of both species were transferred to an experimental garden and maintained as a ield gene bank that could be uti- lized for studying genetic variability. EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES Mantisia spathulata Schult. and M. wengeri Fischer are two critically-endan- gered ornamental zingibers that are found only in restricted pockets of Mizoram, Northeast India. he two species belong to the smallest genera of the family Zingiberaceae and are highly signiicant for understanding the molecular phy- logenetic classiication of the family. It has been strongly suggested that an ex- tensive ield survey of all the species of Mantisia in their wild habitats should be made (Williams et al., 2004). However, plants of both species have been signiicantly reduced in natural habitats due to natural calamities and human intervention (Ganeshaiah, 2005; Tandon et al., 2007). We previously reported the conservation of Mantisia spp. through in vitro clonal propagation and ex situ reintroduction in a garden planting (Bhowmik et al., 2009). Tissue culture has been extensively used for rapid multiplication of many important rare zingibers (Prathanturarug et al., 2004; Tefera and Wannakrairo, 2004; Tandon et al., 2007). hese in vitro raised plantlets represent the true- to-type clones of their germplasm. However, for efective conservation of rare and endangered plants it is crucial to sustain the genetic diversity among plants. he possibility of sustaining the genetic diversity of rare and endan- gered plants becomes possible only through seed propagation because of their 57 Plant Biotechnology Laboratory, Centre for Advanced Studies in Botany, North Eastern Hill Univer- sity, Shillong - 793 022, India; *Corresponding author (E-mail: sumankhatrikumaria@hotmail.com). Received 28 August 2009.