Germination responses of Sporobolus ioclados: a saline desert grass
نویسنده
چکیده
Sporobolus ioclados (Nees ex Trin.) Nees (Poaceae), a halophytic grass distributed in coastal and inland regions of Pakistan, is a potential forage crop which could be grown in the degraded saline soils of the Indus plain and coastal areas. Greatest germination was obtained in non-saline control and it was linearly reduced with increases in salinity to 500 mM NaCl. Variation in temperature substantially affected germination in both the saline and nonsaline treatments. At the optimal temperature regime of 20:301C, S. ioclados seeds showed 93% germination at 0 mM NaCl and 18% germination at 500 mM NaCl, respectively. In all other temperature regimes, only 50% of the seeds germinated in 0 mM while none germinated at 500 mM NaCl. Rate of germination decreased with an increase in salinity at all temperature regimes but comparatively higher rates were obtained at 20:301C. Seeds showed a low recovery response when transferred to distilled water after 20 days of exposure to salinity and tetrazolium viability test showed that most of the ungerminated seeds were dead. The present study showed that if the seed is protected from salinity and temperature stress during storage in the soil, it could germinate during monsoon rains.
منابع مشابه
A plurality of causal mechanisms explains the persistence or transience of soil seed banks
Annual forbs form short-term persistent soil seed banks whereas perennial grasses form mostly transient ones in the central Monte desert. A conceptual framework predicts that annual forb seeds will have primary dormancy, whereas perennial grasses will have low dormancy levels. We assessed whether the dormancy traits of four annual forb species and five perennial grass species can account for th...
متن کاملPhotoluminescent distinction among plant life forms using phosphate buffered saline extract solutions.
Photoluminescence of plant extract solutions has been investigated for discrimination of plant life forms (grasses, forbs, and shrubs) using principal component analysis (PCA). Clippings from each of six plant species representing three different plant life forms potentially found in the diets of free-ranging herbivores in the Chihuahuan Desert of North America were investigated for possible di...
متن کاملDormancy-Related Seed Positional Effect in Two Populations of an Annual Grass from Locations of Contrasting Aridity
In grasses, variation in seed size and dormancy often results from a seed's position within a dispersal unit. In this paper, I asked whether seed positional effect within a spikelet contributes to ecotypic differentiation between two populations of Avena sterilis having different species range position and associated aridity. I created experimental seed banks in which germination of seeds (flor...
متن کاملResponses of African Grasses in the Genus Sporobolus to Defoliation and Sodium Stress: Tradeoffs, Cross-Tolerance, or Independent Responses?
In the Serengeti ecosystem of East Africa, grazing ungulates prefer areas with elevated grass Na, suggesting that some grasses tolerate both high soil Na and defoliation. We performed a factorial Na-by-defoliation greenhouse study with five abundant Sporobolus congeners to explore whether Serengeti grasses possess traits which: (i) confer tolerance to both Na and defoliation (cross-tolerance); ...
متن کامل