Open Access

ARTICLE

Light and temperature effects on seed germination of four native species of Mediterranean high mountains (Spain)

by Serrano-Bernardo F, JL Rosúa, M Díaz-Miguel

1 Departamento de Botánica. Edificio Politécnico. Universidad de Granada. Campus Fuentenueva, s/n. 18071-Granada, España. e-mail: fserber@ugr.es
2 Departamento de Fisiología Vegetal. Facultad de Ciencias. Universidad de Granada. Campus Fuentenueva, s/n. 18071-Granada, España.

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2007, 76(all), 27-38. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2007.76.027

Abstract

The Mediterranean region is considered one of the most important zones worldwide in terms of plant diversity. Sierra Nevada (S Spain) is a unique mountain massif within the high-mountain systems of the Mediterranean. It is of great floristic importance and very rich in endemic species. However, it requires numerous tasks for restoring plant cover due to the constant anthropic degradation, especially because of the ski station located near the second-highest peak of the mountain. One of the restoration efforts consists of trying to reproduce, in the laboratory, the ideal conditions to pre-germinate seeds of some of the species most threatened by these perturbations. This is to transplant the seedlings afterwards in the mountain, thereby contributing to the recovery of these species. With this purpose, a germination experiment was performed, under controlled conditions, with seeds of Genista versicolor Boiss. Hormathophylla spinosa (L.) P. Küpfer, Reseda complicata Bory, and Thymus serpylloides Bory. These four species, native to the Mediterranean high mountains, were germinated under constant darkness, 12 or 24 h light followed by constant darkness, and constant light, at temperatures of 15 ºC or 25 ºC. The germination process was monitored during 15 days. Results were species-dependent: some species germinated easier under darkness at low temperatures, such as Genista versicolor, whereas Thymus serpylloides presented maximum germination under constant light to a higher temperature.

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