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Seasonal Changes in the Germination Responses of Buried Witchgrass (Panicum capillare) Seeds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2017

Jerry M. Baskin  and
Carol C. Baskin
Jerry M. Baskin
Affiliation:
School Biol. Sci., Univ. Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0225
Carol C. Baskin
Affiliation:
School Biol. Sci., Univ. Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0225
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Abstract

Buried seeds of witchgrass (Panicum capillare L., # PANCA) exposed to natural seasonal temperature changes in Lexington, KY, for 0 to 35 months exhibited annual dormancy/nondormancy cycles. Seeds were dormant at maturity in early October. During burial in late autumn and winter, fresh seeds and those that had been buried for 1 and 2 years became nondormant. Nondormant seeds germinated from 76 to 100% in light at daily thermoperiods of 15/6, 20/10, 25/15, 30/15, and 35/20 C, while in darkness they germinated from 1 to 24%. In late spring, seeds lost the ability to germinate in darkness, and by late summer 63 to 100% of them had lost the ability to germinate in light. As seeds became nondormant, they germinated (in light) at high (35/20, 30/15 C) and then at lower (25/15, 20/10, and 15/6 C) temperatures. As seeds reentered dormancy, they lost the ability to germinate (in light) at 15/6 C and at higher thermoperiods 2 to 3 months later.

Keywords

Summer annualtemperature requirementdormancylight requiringPANCA
Type
Weed Biology and Ecology
Information
Weed Science , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , January 1986 , pp. 22 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 by the Weed Science Society of America 

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