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Plant-derived smoke enhances germination of the invasive common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca L.)

100%

Mojzes A., Kalapos T.

Polish Journal of Ecology

2015

tom 63

nr 2

Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca L.) has become an invasive weed in Central and Eastern Europe, where human-induced fires have also taken part in forming the landscape. There is growing evidence that plant-derived smoke enhances seed germination, especially for species from fire-prone ecosystems, via the mechanisms of dormancy-breaking, germination stimulation or both. Hence, we hypothesized that smoke promotes seed germination for common milkweed by either or both mechanisms. To test this, germination responses of A. syriaca to the application of aqueous smoke solution (smoke-water) were studied in laboratory. Seeds were either cold stratified ( 7°C, 16 days) in tap water (TW), smoke-water (SW) or were not stratified at all, and then were germinated with SW or with TW (encompassing 5 treatments: 0—TW, 0—SW, TW—TW, TW—SW and SW—TW, where the first abbreviation indicates stratification, the second germination condition). In line with our hypothesis, the low (5%) germination of seeds was enhanced by cold stratification with SW at a greater extent (increasing to 52%) than by cold stratification with TW (25%), indicating that SW contributed to dormancy-breaking of seeds for A. syriaca. In contrast, SW did not stimulate germination when it was applied during the germination phase. To our best knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating smokeenhanced germination for common milkweed, which mechanism may help this species to successfully colonize new habitats after fire. As fire frequency is expected to increase in Europe with recent climate change, these results might contribute to a more efficient control of A. syriaca in areas threatened by its invasion.

Comparison of seed longevity for thirty forest, grassland and weed species of the Central European flora: results of a seed burial experiment

80%

Csontos P., Kalapos T., Tomas J.

Polish Journal of Ecology

2016

tom 64

nr 3

We compared seed longevity of herbaceous species in three habitat types differing in stability. We hypothesized that seed longevity is the lowest for forest species (living in stable habitat), the highest for weeds, while species of xerothermic grasslands take an intermediate value. Ten species were selected from each of the three habitats with balanced representation of plant families among habitats. Seeds of the 30 species were deep buried at 65 cm depth, then replicates recovered after 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 years, and germinated in an unheated greenhouse. Weeds expressed the highest germination rate (36.1% in average) exceeding forest (14.4%) and grassland species (10.2%) which did not differ significantly. The number of species with transient, short-term persistent and long-term persistent seed bank, respectively, was 1, 7 and 2 for grasslands; 1, 3 and 6 for forests; and 0, 1 and 9 for weeds. As expected, weeds possessed the highest seed longevity. Contrary to our assumption, low seed longevity was not the norm among forest understorey species, and seed longevity of xerothermic grassland species was not intermediate but the shortest one. Ecological background of differences between hypotheses and experimental results are discussed. First record on seed bank type is reported here for 12 species: Dianthus pontederae, Digitalis grandiflora, Ferula sadleriana, Hieracium sylvaticum, Inula ensifolia, Jurinea mollis, Lychnis coronaria, Saponaria officinalis, Scorzonera austriaca, Secale sylvestre, Stipa borysthenica, Verbascum lychnitis.

Ograniczanie wyników

2 Polish Journal of Ecology

2 Kalapos T.

1 Csontos P.

1 Mojzes A.

1 Tomas J.

1 2016

1 2015

Wyniki wyszukiwania

Plant-derived smoke enhances germination of the invasive common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca L.)

Comparison of seed longevity for thirty forest, grassland and weed species of the Central European flora: results of a seed burial experiment