Native Seed Germination Trials at the Rae Selling Berry Seed Bank
Start Date
4-4-2023 4:00 PM
End Date
4-4-2023 6:00 PM
Abstract
A total of 187 preliminary germination trials were conducted on 154 Pacific Northwest native plant taxa at The Rae Selling Berry Seed Bank located on the Portland State University campus in Portland, OR. Trials were conducted throughout 2022 on seeds stored for 0.1 to 34 years in a cold, dry room (5° C and 25% relative humidity). Seeds were sown without pretreatments or prior to sowing seeds were imbibed and cold-stratified for 4 months at 5°C or soaked in 1,000 ppm Gibberellic Acid for 24 hours. Seeds were either germinated under laboratory conditions (25/15 °C day/night; 12-hour photoperiod) or in a climate-controlled greenhouse under light or dark conditions. Germination occurred in 51% of trials and a total of 89 taxa were germinated. The seed pretreatments of cold stratification or gibberellic acid improved germination for several species indicating their seeds may have physiological dormancy and require winter conditions in the wild or pretreatments prior to sowing for germination. For several other species, there was >50% germination for seeds without pretreatments and pretreatments did not improve germination, indicating these species may be non-dormant and germinate immediately or have non-deep physiological dormancy which can be overcome with time in dry storage. Light affects were species specific and light improved, reduced, or did not affect germination. Of the 90 trials conducted on seeds stored long-term (14 to 38 years), 52% of taxa germinated, indicating many Pacific Northwest native species have orthodox seeds that can be stored long-term using standard ex situ seed banking techniques.
Subjects
Conservation biology, Plant ecology
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/40479
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Native Seed Germination Trials at the Rae Selling Berry Seed Bank
A total of 187 preliminary germination trials were conducted on 154 Pacific Northwest native plant taxa at The Rae Selling Berry Seed Bank located on the Portland State University campus in Portland, OR. Trials were conducted throughout 2022 on seeds stored for 0.1 to 34 years in a cold, dry room (5° C and 25% relative humidity). Seeds were sown without pretreatments or prior to sowing seeds were imbibed and cold-stratified for 4 months at 5°C or soaked in 1,000 ppm Gibberellic Acid for 24 hours. Seeds were either germinated under laboratory conditions (25/15 °C day/night; 12-hour photoperiod) or in a climate-controlled greenhouse under light or dark conditions. Germination occurred in 51% of trials and a total of 89 taxa were germinated. The seed pretreatments of cold stratification or gibberellic acid improved germination for several species indicating their seeds may have physiological dormancy and require winter conditions in the wild or pretreatments prior to sowing for germination. For several other species, there was >50% germination for seeds without pretreatments and pretreatments did not improve germination, indicating these species may be non-dormant and germinate immediately or have non-deep physiological dormancy which can be overcome with time in dry storage. Light affects were species specific and light improved, reduced, or did not affect germination. Of the 90 trials conducted on seeds stored long-term (14 to 38 years), 52% of taxa germinated, indicating many Pacific Northwest native species have orthodox seeds that can be stored long-term using standard ex situ seed banking techniques.