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Seed dormancy and germination behaviour of tropical rainforest tree species from Sri Lanka

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2022

B.R. Chandima P. Samarasinghe Open the ORCID record for B.R. Chandima P. Samarasinghe [Opens in a new window] ,
K.M.G. Gehan Jayasuriya ,
A.M. Thilanka A. Gunaratne ,
Mahesh C. Senanayaka  and
Kingsley W. Dixon
B.R. Chandima P. Samarasinghe*
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka Postgraduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
K.M.G. Gehan Jayasuriya
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka Postgraduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
A.M. Thilanka A. Gunaratne
Affiliation:
Department of Botany, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka Postgraduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Mahesh C. Senanayaka
Affiliation:
Department of Forest Conservation, Rajamalwatta Road, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka
Kingsley W. Dixon
Affiliation:
ARC Centre for Mine Site Restoration, School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia, Australia
*
*Correspondence: B.R. Chandima P. Samarasinghe, E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Plant community-level studies on seed dormancy traits are important to understand and determine the significance of seed dormancy in different ecosystems. Hence, we studied seed dormancy and other related seed biological traits of 42 selected tropical lowland rainforest tree species from Sri Lanka, aiming to address seed dormancy class(es) for a biodiverse tropical lowland wet zone forest community and the relationship between dormancy classes, forest strata and seed dispersal mechanisms. Seed germination, imbibition, embryo length:seed length ratio, embryo morphology and the effect of gibberrelic acid on seed germination were determined. Sixty-two percent of the species with T50 < 30 days were identified as having fast-germinating seeds and the remaining 38% with T50 > 30 possessed slow-germinating seeds. Seeds of 33 species had fully developed embryos, while nine species had underdeveloped embryos; three had morphological dormancy (MD) and six morphophysiological dormancy (MPD). Treatment with gibberellic acid revealed physiological dormancy (PD) in seeds of six species, and the response to manual scarification confirmed physical dormancy (PY) in seeds of Pericopsis moonina. The majority of tropical lowland rainforests had non-dormant (ND) species (62%), and 14.3, 14.3, 7 and 2.3% of the species had MPD, PD, MD, and PY, respectively. Non-dormancy decreased for taxa from the upper strata to the lower strata of the forest. ND seeds were dispersed during the rainy season. Thus, non-dormancy seems to be the most dominant germination behaviour among the tree species in the lowland rainforest of Sri Lanka with the class of dormancy related to forest strata and dispersal time.

Keywords

morphophysiological dormancynon-dormantrainy seasonseed dormancyseed germination
Type
Research Paper
Information
Seed Science Research , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , June 2022 , pp. 94 - 103
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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