Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T01:13:46.873Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Seasonal Changes in the Germination Responses of Buried Witchgrass (Panicum capillare) Seeds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2017

Jerry M. Baskin  and
Carol C. Baskin
Jerry M. Baskin
Affiliation:
School Biol. Sci., Univ. Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0225
Carol C. Baskin
Affiliation:
School Biol. Sci., Univ. Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0225
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Buried seeds of witchgrass (Panicum capillare L., # PANCA) exposed to natural seasonal temperature changes in Lexington, KY, for 0 to 35 months exhibited annual dormancy/nondormancy cycles. Seeds were dormant at maturity in early October. During burial in late autumn and winter, fresh seeds and those that had been buried for 1 and 2 years became nondormant. Nondormant seeds germinated from 76 to 100% in light at daily thermoperiods of 15/6, 20/10, 25/15, 30/15, and 35/20 C, while in darkness they germinated from 1 to 24%. In late spring, seeds lost the ability to germinate in darkness, and by late summer 63 to 100% of them had lost the ability to germinate in light. As seeds became nondormant, they germinated (in light) at high (35/20, 30/15 C) and then at lower (25/15, 20/10, and 15/6 C) temperatures. As seeds reentered dormancy, they lost the ability to germinate (in light) at 15/6 C and at higher thermoperiods 2 to 3 months later.

Keywords

Summer annualtemperature requirementdormancylight requiringPANCA
Type
Weed Biology and Ecology
Information
Weed Science , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , January 1986 , pp. 22 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 by the Weed Science Society of America 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

1. Abrams, M. D. and Dickman, D. I. 1982. Early revegetation of clear-cut and burned Jack pine sites in northern lower Michigan. Can. J. Bot. 60:946–954.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. Baskin, J. M. and Baskin, C. C. 1983. Seasonal changes in the germination responses of fall panicum to temperature and light, Can. J. Plant Sci. 63:973–979.Google Scholar
3. Baumgras, P. S. 1943. Winter food productivity of agricultural land for seed-eating birds and mammals. J. Wildl. Manage. 7:13–18.Google Scholar
4. Costello, D. F. 1944. Natural revegetation of abandoned plowed land in the mixed prairie association of northeastern Colorado. Ecology 25:312–326.Google Scholar
5. Fernald, M. L. 1950. Gray's manual of botany. 8th ed. American Book Co., New York.Google Scholar
6. Häfliger, Ernst, Scholz, B., and Scholz, H. 1980. Grass weeds I. Weeds of the subfamily Panicoideae. CIBA-GEIGY Ltd., Basle, Switzerland.Google Scholar
7. Hattersley, P. W. 1984. Characterization of C4 type leaf anatomy in grasses (Poaceae). Mesophyll: bundle sheath area ratios. Ann. Bot. (N.S.) 53:163–179.Google Scholar
8. Jaques, H. E. 1926. The prolificness of some common plants. Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 33:135–136.Google Scholar
9. Livingston, R. B. and Allessio, M. L. 1968. Buried viable seed in successional field and forest stands, Harvard Forest, Massachusetts. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 95:58–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10. McGregor, R. L. 1948. First year invasion of plants on an exposed lake bed. Trans. Kans. Acad. Sci. 51:324–327.Google Scholar
11. McWilliams, E. L. and Ludwig, L. K. 1972. Floral phenology at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. Mich. Bot. 11:83–114.Google Scholar
12. Nicholson, R. A. and Hulett, G. K. 1969. Remnant grassland vegetation in the central Great Plains of North America. J. Ecol. 57:599–612.Google Scholar
13. Pipal, F. J. 1916. Weed seeds in the soil. Proc. Indiana Acad. Sci. 1916:368–377.Google Scholar
14. Prince, F. S. and Hodgdon, A. R. 1946. Viable seeds in old pasture soils. New Hampshire Agric. Exp. Stn. Tech. Bull. 89:3–16.Google Scholar
15. Stevens, O. A. 1932. The number and weight of seeds produced by plants. Am. J. Bot. 19:784–794.Google Scholar
16. Stevens, O. A. 1975. Comparison of flowering records from Kansas and North Dakota. Prairie Nat. 7:81–85.Google Scholar
17. Steyermark, J. A. 1940. Studies of the vegetation of Missouri – I. Natural plant associations and succession in the Ozarks of Missouri. Field Mus. Nat. Hist. Bot. Ser. 9:348–475.Google Scholar
18. United States Department of Commerce, Weather Bureau. 1965. Climatography of the U.S. 86–35. Decennial census of U.S. climate. Climatic summary of the United States – supplement for 1951 through 1960. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
19. Van der Valk, A. G. and Davis, C. B. 1979. A reconstruction of the recent vegetational history of a prairie marsh, Eagle Lake, Iowa, from its seed bank. Aquat. Bot. 6:29–51.Google Scholar
20. Vogl, R. J. 1964. The effects of fire on the vegetational composition of bracken grassland. Trans. Wis. Acad. Sci., Arts & Letts. 53:67–82.Google Scholar
21. Wax, L. M., Fawcett, R. S., and Isely, D. 1981. Weeds of the north central states. Univ. Ill., Urbana-Champaign, Agric. Exp. Stn. Bull. 772.Google Scholar
22. Weaver, J. E. and Albertson, F. W. 1944. Nature and degree of recovery of grassland from the great drought of 1933 to 1940. Ecol. Monogr. 14:393–479.Google Scholar
23. Weaver, J. E. and Hansen, W. W. 1941. Native midwestern pastures: Their origin, composition and degeneration. Nebraska Conserv. Bull. No. 22.Google Scholar