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Fruit Set, Seed Viability and Germination of the European Native Spartina maritima in Southwest Iberian Peninsula

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Abstract

Spartina maritima is the only native cordgrass in Europe and Africa and plays an important role in European salt marshes as a primary colonizer. Many aspects of its reproductive biology are unknown. Viable seed production has been described as potentially very low to non-existent. Our primary objective was to evaluate the seed viability of S. maritima. We hypothesized that S. maritima was capable of producing viable seeds since we observed many new patches of this cordgrass. We analyzed 400 inflorescences in fruiting state from 20 different tussocks in three estuaries in the Southwest Iberian Peninsula and carried out a germination experiment. Spartina maritima was able to set moderate numbers of highly viable caryopses. Mature caryopses with embryos were recorded in 12.5 ± 2.9% of total spikelets, with high variation ranging from 0 to 45% among tussocks. Caryopses showed a high level of viability (89.0 ± 4.9%) and final germination fraction (85.3 ± 2.9%). The percentage of spikelets with all their stamens exerted was 38.3 ± 4.5%, being positively correlated with the percentage of mature caryopses with embryo, indicating that tussocks in which inflorescences reached a more advanced state of flowering when fruit set started would ultimately produce more fruits.

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Acknowledgments

We thank to the management of the Odiel Marshes Natural Park for its collaboration. M.D. Infante-Izquierdo acknowledges to Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Spanish Government, for the FPU Grant (Ref. FPU14/06556). The authors thank Dra. Malika Ainouche for her review and comments on the initial manuscript.

Funding

Funding for these experiments was obtained from Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Spanish Government, for the FPU Grant (Ref. FPU14/06556)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ciencias Integradas, Universidad de Huelva, 21071, Huelva, Spain

    M. Dolores Infante-Izquierdo, F. Javier J. Nieva, Ioana D. Rotundu, Francesca T. David & Adolfo F. Muñoz-Rodríguez

  2. Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Sevilla, Ap. 1095, 41080, Sevilla, Spain

    Jesús M. Castillo

  3. USDA-ARS Invasive Species and Pollinator Health Research Unit, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    Brenda J. Grewell

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  1. M. Dolores Infante-Izquierdo
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Correspondence to Jesús M. Castillo.

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Infante-Izquierdo, M.D., Castillo, J.M., Nieva, F.J.J. et al. Fruit Set, Seed Viability and Germination of the European Native Spartina maritima in Southwest Iberian Peninsula. Wetlands 40, 421–432 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-019-01188-1

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