New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

---

Some establishment characteristics of mouse-ear and king devil hawkweeds

W. MAKEPEACE*!

Botany Department, University of Canterbury
Private Bag, Christchurch, New Zealand

Abstract Seed of mouse-ear {Pilosella officina- rum) and king devil hawkweed (P. praealta) ger- minated rapidly at warm temperatures without after-ripening. Germination differences were found which appeared to be related to the preferred hab- itat of each species. King devil seed was lighter and had lower reserves than mouse-ear seed. Light induction was required by king devil. The range of suitable temperatures for rapid germination was wider and the optimum higher for king devil com- pared to mouse-ear seed. King devil tolerated more moisture stress during germination than mouse-ear, but was inferior to white clover, alsike, and cocks- foot seed. The ratio of shoot to root growth was greater in king devil seedlings than in mouse-ear seedlings. Mouse-ear had a more limited mor- phological response to shading than king devil during both seedling and adult life stages. Mouse- ear preferred higher soil fertility than king devil. Vegetative propagation of mouse-ear increased with fertilisation. Calcium nitrate increased the number of daughters produced and molybdenum-fortified superphosphate increased the length of stolons.

Keywords mouse-ear hawkweed; Pilosella offi- cinarum ; king devil hawkweed; Pilosella praealta; Hieracium establishment; germination; light; tem- peratures; fertiliser, herbicide

Received 20 March 1984; accepted 17 August 1984
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1985, Vol. 23: 91-100
0028-825X/85/2301-0091$2.50/0 © Crown copyright 1985

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (769K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

---

This year's abstracts | Journal home page | All abstracts | Publishing home page