Effects of Some Environmental Factors on Seed Germination and Seedling Growth of Heliotropium europaeum L.

Abstract

The typical plant heliotrope (Heliotropium europaeum L.) is an extremely competitive weed thathas recently become an invasive weed problem in many areas of the world. If the species is nothandled and produces a lot of little seeds, it will provide a remarkable colonizing and invasivecapacity. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate some environmental aspects that may enhanceor prohibit the seed germination and emergence, with the purpose of guiding the creation of longtermcontrolling plans to eradicate this plant. For this investigation, seeds were gathered from avariety of mature plants in various locations. The effects of temperature regimes, light, waterstress, salinity, and burial depth on seed germination and seedling emergence of H. europaeumwere examined. The results showed that seeds of H. europaeum could germinate in a wide rangeof temperatures. Light clearly promoted seed germination, demonstrating that concealed seed willremain inactive until distressed. Water stress significantly decreased germination of H. europaeumseeds. Germination was reduced significantly to lee than 20 % at water potentials (-1 MPa). Over80% of H. europaeum seeds germinate at low salinity (100 mM NaCl), while reasonablegermination (75%) occurs at 200 mM NaCl, indicating that the seeds are fairly tolerant to salinity.In the burial depth treatment, the species' maximum appearance rates were 64.5 percent and 63percent, at a depth of 0.5 cm and surface treatments. The findings of this research might be usedto help create long- term controlling for this harmful plant.

Keywords

• germination
• water stress
• high temperature
• light and salinity