New Zealand Journal of Botany abstract

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The effects of low temperatures on seed germination of some New Zealand species of Pittosporum

SIMON MOORE
PETER BANNISTER^*
PAULA E. JAMESON⁺

Department of Botany
University of Otago
P.O. Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
*To whom all correspondence should be addressed.
+Present address: Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, Massey University, Private Bag 11222, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Abstract  Imbibed seeds of Pittosporum eugenioides, P. obcordatum, P. tenuifolium, and P. crassifolium showed almost no germination and a marked loss of viability after 3-4 months moist storage in light at 21deg.C. In contrast, 8 weeks or more of low temperature stratification resulted in almost complete germination of seeds of P. eugenioides and P. obcordatum, and increased germination in seeds of P. tenuifolium, although stratified seeds of P. crassifolium failed to germinate. Application of 10^-3 M gibberellic acid substituted for the stratification requirement only in seeds of P. obcordatum. Interspecific differences in the response to stratification of these four species are apparent.

Keywords  seed germination; stratification; gibberellic acid; Pittosporum; New Zealand

New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1994, Vol. 32: 483-485

0028-825X/94/3204-0483 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 1994

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (243K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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