Factors affecting the seed germination and seedling emergence of muskweed (Myagrum perfoliatum)

Abstract

Myagrum perfoliatum is a noxious broad‐leaved weed in western Iranian farming systems. A better understanding of the timing of seedling emergence would facilitate the development of better control strategies for this weed. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the effects of different factors on muskweed seed germination. Only 2.8% of the seeds of this species, which are encapsulated in siliques, germinated by, while the seeds that had been removed from the siliques had a 50% germination rate. The immersion of muskweed fruits in concentrated sulfuric acid for 110 min was the best treatment for promoting germination. Gibberellic acid stimulated the germination of the naked seeds by 29.1%, potassium nitrate (40 mmol L‐1) increased the germination rate to 71%, while higher concentrations of potassium nitrate inhibited germination. The optimum germination temperature for the naked seeds was 20/10°C (day/night) and light was not required for germination. No seedling emerged when the seeds were buried 6 cm deep. The seeds were sensitive to both osmotic and salinity stress, but they germinated to 46–49% over a pH range of 4–10. The results of this study revealed that the seeds of M . perfoliatum have physiological dormancy and that it is slowly broken via after‐ripening. However, the fruit wall can prevent germination after physiological dormancy is broken. Thus, this species has the potential to form a persistent seed bank because of the presence of the fruit wall.

Variations in the germination characteristics in response to environmental factors between the hairy and spiny seeds of hedge parsley (Torilis arvensis Huds.)

“…Germination of both seed types of T. arvensis in the presence or absence of light was the same and was not affected by light. Similar to our results, the insensibility of weed seeds to light for germination (nonphotoblastic) has been reported for many other species, such as Centaurea balsamita Lam (Nosratti et al 2017c), Myagrum perfoliatum (Honarmand et al 2016), Sophora alopecuroides (Nosratti et al 2017a), Solanum ptycanthum Dun (Zhou et al 2005) and Ipomoea purpurea Roth (Singh et al 2012).…”

“…), Myagrum perfoliatum (Honarmand et al . ), Sophora alopecuroides (Nosratti et al . ), Solanum ptycanthum Dun (Zhou et al .…”

Seed germination and seedling emergence of Iberian starthistle (Centaurea iberica)

“…Centaurea iberica was tolerant to water stress, compared to other drought‐tolerant Iranian weeds (Eslami ; Ebrahimi & Eslami ; Honarmand et al . ). Based on this study's results, the dry soils in the western parts of Iran are favorable for the germination of C. iberica .…”

Effects of Environmental Factors on Seed Germination and Emergence of Velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti)

“…black nightshade (Solanum nigrum) (Taab and Andersson, 2009), common lambsquarters (Chenopodium album) (Eslami, 2011), eastern black nightshade (S. ptycanthum) , goosegrass (Eleusine indica) (Chauhan and Johnson, 2008), and horseweed (Conyza canadensis) (Nandula et al, 2006). However, light was not required for the germination of hairy nightshade , Japanese brome (Bromus japonicus) (Li et al, 2015), and muskweed (Myagrum perfoliatum) (Honarmand et al, 2016).…”

“…The concentration required for 50% inhibition of maximum germination was 70.6 mM NaCl ( Figure 6A). The maximum concentration at which no seed could germinate for barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli) (Sadeghloo et al, 2013), citronmelon (Ramirez et al, 2014), Japanese brome (Li et al, 2015), muskweed (Honarmand et al, 2016), and spotted spurge (Asgarpour et al, 2015) was 400, 300, 360, 250, and 160 mM NaCl, respectively. These results showed that velvetleaf is not tolerant to salinity as compared with the above weed species, which could germinate at high NaCl concentration.…”