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Germination and seed bank biology in some Iberian populations of Anagyris foetida L. (Leguminosae)

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Abstract

In Anagyris foetida, the fruits are disseminated by fall under gravity. No dispersing agent is as yet known, so that the fruits are located near the mother plant. The species presents an important seed bank that differs between the two populations studied, probably due to their different production of seeds/individual and to the livestock pressure. The germination of control seeds was found to be null or very low, with no improvement following exposure to high temperatures, but reaching high values following scarification in all the populations studied. This indicates that the failure in germination must be attributed to the hardness of the testa, with the seeds presenting physical dormancy. Also, the browsing of sheep on ripe fruit increases germination to 48% due to mechanical scarification, with this being the only positive effect those animals have on these plants. There were differences in germination after scarification between populations and years which could have been due to intrinsic characteristics.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financed by the Ministry of Education and Science of Spain through projects BOS2002-00703 and CGL2005-00783/BOS, both cofinanced by FEDER. A predoctoral grant of that Ministry to FJV (BES-2003-2187) is greatly appreciated. We thank Dr Miguel González for statistical assistance and to an anonymous referee for valuable comments on the manuscript.

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  1. Área de Botánica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Extremadura, Avda. de Elvas, s.n., 06071, Badajoz, Spain

    F. J. Valtueña, A. Ortega-Olivencia & T. Rodríguez-Riaño

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  1. F. J. Valtueña
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  2. A. Ortega-Olivencia
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  3. T. Rodríguez-Riaño
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Correspondence to A. Ortega-Olivencia.

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Valtueña, F.J., Ortega-Olivencia, A. & Rodríguez-Riaño, T. Germination and seed bank biology in some Iberian populations of Anagyris foetida L. (Leguminosae). Plant Syst Evol 275, 231–243 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-008-0067-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-008-0067-2

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