Germination with respect to temperatures of two argentinian Prosopis species

CONY, M. A.

JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 1996 vol. 33 p. 225 - 236

0140-1963

In order to detect the principal germination temperatures of Proposis flexuosa and Prosopis chilensis seeds an experiment was carried out testing a wide range of temperatures, from 10?45°C. At 15°C the germinability decreased significantly, and so a second experiment was designed incubating seeds of the same species from different provenances at 15°C, in order to evaluate the inter-intraspecific variability in relation to germinative capacity at low temperatures. The optimum germination temperature was between 20 and 25°C for P. flexuosa and from 25 to 40°C for P. chilensis. The minimum temperature was near 10°C and the maximum 45°C for both species. At low temperatures, P. flexuosa germinated better than P. chilensis. No differences in germination capacity were found between provenances for either species but a high variability was found at individual tree level within provenances.