Smoke seed germination studies and a guide to seed propagation of plants from the major families of the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa

By N. Brown, P. Botha, J. van Staden. 2004

107 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Fynbos is the dominant vegetation of the Cape Floristic Region (CFR), one of world's richest regions in terms of its biodiversity and a region in which over two-thirds of the plant species and seven of the plant families are endemics. Many fynbos species from the major families such as the Proteaceae, Ericaceae, Asteraceae and Restionaceae are cultivated as ornamentals or are of importance as floricultural crops. Propagation of fynbos plants from seed is often difficult, as seeds of many species are dormant when shed and require very specific environmental 'messages' or cues before they will germinate. Fire provides the major cues for germination in the wild and these cues have to be simulated when attempting to germinate wildflower seed in the laboratory and nursery. This study reports on the germination response to smoke of 283 species from 39 families of fynbos. In addition seeds of some of the species were subjected to other dormancy breaking treatments and these results, together with results of similar treatments reported in the literature, are included. Results from these germination trials have been used to provide new general guidelines or protocols for germinating fynbos seeds in the nursery or to update the previously published ones.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ca8e517605367972bdf42ee9fe3564caddd4a3ee

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In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

In Plant Science

Citations in the corpus

Butenolide from plant-derived smoke enhances germination and seedling growth of arable weed species (2006, background): “Smoke and smoke solutions from the combustion of plant material stimulate germination in a wide range of species from fire-prone environments differing in plant growth form, reproductive strategy and seed size (Brown et al. 2003; Brown and Botha 2004).”
Effects of a butenolide present in smoke on light-mediated germination of Australian Asteraceae (2006, background): “The germination-promotive effects of smoke have long been recognized (De Lange and Boucher, 1990), and have been reported for awide range of species native to South Africa (Brown et al., 1993; Brown and Botha, 2004), Australia (Dixon et al., 1995; Roche et al., 1997) and California (Keeley and Fothe”
Fire as a Selective Agent for both Serotiny and Nonserotiny Over Space and Time (2020, background): “Rarely, the germination of seeds of some species is promoted by smoke (Brown and Botha, 2004) that coincides with the postfire environment, though it is usually confined to soil-stored seeds.”