KERAGAMAN JENIS BIJI YANG TERPENDAM DALAM TANAH HUTAN PADA HABITAT Taxus Sumatrana DI GUNUNG KERINCI

The population of Taxus spp. in the world is decreasing due to over-exploitation to fulfill the Paclitaxel world
market needs. Paclitaxel is produced from Taxus spp., commercialized under the trademark of Taxol and
very effective in curing breast, ovarian, lung, pancreatic, and other cancers. Indonesia posses Taxus
sumatrana which has not been commercialized, even the ecological information is still lacking. T. sumatrana
seeds are small, hard and difficult to germinate. It is suspected that T. sumatrana seeds are buried deep in
forest soil to form soil seed bank that will germinate when exposed to sufficient sunlight. This study aims to
determine the potential of T. sumatrana soil seed bank. The soil under the crown of T. sumatrana and other
tree species in the habitat of T. sumatrana were sampled to be "germinated" in a greenhouse in Bogor. The
emerged seedlings are then identified and counted until there are no more new seedlings emerge. The results
showed that there were only six species of seedlings that emerged from the forest soil taken form the habitat
of T. sumatrana namely Debregeasia dichotoma Wedd, Diplazium sp., Brassica rugosa Prain, Cyperus
diformis L, Panicum pilipes Nees, and Ficus sp. The first two were the dominant species. Up to the end of the
study, the seedling of T. sumatrana was not found at all. It was concluded that T. sumatrana did not build soil
seed bank.