TITLE:
Effects of Temperature, Light and Seed Moisture Content on Germination of Euterpe precatoria Palm
AUTHORS:
Carla Rafaele Xavier Costa, Kathia Fernandes Lopes Pivetta, Gilberto Rostirolla Batista de Souza, Renata Bachin Mazzini-Guedes, Suzana Targanski Sajovic Pereira, Marina Romano Nogueira
KEYWORDS:
Arecaceae, Luminosity, Ornamental Palm, Seed Desiccation
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.9 No.1,
January
19,
2018
ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects
of different temperatures, light regimes, and seed moisture contents on
germination of the palm Euterpe
precatoria, in the Arecaceae family. For the study of light and
temperature, the experimental design was
entirely randomized; treatments were arranged in a 6 × 2 factorial scheme [six temperature conditions (20°C, 25°C, 30°C, 35°C, 20°C - 30°C, and 25°C - 35°C) combined
with two light regimes (light and darkness)] with four replications composed of
25 seeds each. For the seed moisture content study, the experimental design was
entirely randomized with five seed moisture contents (27%, 20%, 13%, 12%, and
11%), to which they comprised 5 treatments, and four replications with 25 seeds
each. Number of germinated seeds was recorded daily until germination was
steady. Data were submitted to variance analysis; for the first experiment,
means were compared by the Tukey test (p ≤ 0.05) and, for the second, the regression analysis was performed. The
temperature at 20°C
promoted highest germination percentage and germination rate for E. precatoria seeds, under either light
or darkness; seeds were tolerant up to 11% moisture content.