Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31298/sl.141.5-6.4
Seed dormancy and cone and seed morphology of syrian juniper (Juniperus drupacea Labill.) in the eastern mediterranean region of Turkey
Zeynep Yavuz
; Faculty of Forestry, Department of Silviculture, K.Maraş, Turkey
Mustafa Yilmaz
orcid.org/0000-0002-8250-1882
; Faculty of Forestry, Bursa, Turkey
Abstract
Syrian juniper, Juniperus drupacea Labill., is an Eastern Mediterranean tree species which belongs to the Cupressaceae family and Juniperoidae sub-family. The current geographical range of J. drupacea covers the southern parts of the Peloponnese in Greece, the southern parts of Asia Minor and the mountains of Syria and Lebanon. The main part of the species range in Turkey is divided into several centres the most important being located in the Taurus, Anti-Taurus and Amanos mountains. It is a dioecious tree, with conical crown, that reaches 10-20 (40) m in height. The fleshy cones are ovoid to globose, 20-25 mm in diameter, brownish-purple or bluish-black, glaucosus and pruniose when ripe in the second year. They mostly have 3 seeds forming a characteristic drupe-like stone. The natural regeneration of Syrian juniper is very difficult because of animal consumption, grazing and the united seeds into the woody structure. This study was carried out to determine the seed and cone morphology and seed physiology of Syrian juniper, Juniperus drupacea Labill., from three provenances (Kahramanmaraş, Mersin, Adana) in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Turkey. In total 11 morphological traits were measured. The average cone length, cone diameter, and cone weight were 22.49 mm, 20.86 mm and 4.659 g, respectively. The average seed length, width, thickness, weight and pulp weight were 10.07 mm, 3.30 mm, 2.77 mm 0.045 g and 2.220 g in order. After morphological analysis, a series of experiments was conducted to identify the best stratification treatment for breaking dormancy in Syrian juniper seeds. The highest germination percentage was obtained after warm and cold stratification (80.7%). The seeds prechilled 8 weeks and soaked 500 ppm GA3 also demonstrated high germination percentage. The current study demonstrated that J. drupacea seeds has morphophysiological dormancy.
Keywords
Juniperus drupacea; cone and seed morphology; seed dormancy
Hrčak ID:
183233
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2017.
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