Achene germination of the spring ephemeroid species Carex physodes in the Gurbantunggut Desert
9 November 2015
abudureheman, buhailiqiemu; lingwei, zhang; liu, huiliang; daoyuan, zhang; Guan, KaiyunMuch of the seed germination research on Carex has focused on wetland species, and little is known about those in arid habitats. Thus, we investigated seed dormancy and germination of Carex physodes, which is an important component of the plant community of the Gurbantunggut Desert of the Junggar Basin in Xinjiang, China. These studies included the effects of mechanical and chemical scarification, dry storage, treatment with GA3, wet-cold stratification, burial in the field. No freshly matured achenes germinated over a range of temperature regimes after treatment with GA3, 6 months of dry storage or removal of part of the endosperm. The mechanical scarification resulted in <5% achene germination, however, higher percentage of achene germination occurred at removal of the pericarp (60%), H2SO4 scarification (30%) and scarification in 10% NaOH (85%). Six and nine months of wet-cold stratification promoted <40% achene germination. The optimal germination temperatures are ranged from 25/10 °C to 35/20 °C. Maximum germination after 9 months of burial at a depth of 3 cm in the field was 36%. These results indicated that seeds have nondeep PD. The pericarp contains germination inhibitor and has strong mechanical resistance to germination.