SEED GERMINATION AND SEED SET IN SOUTHERN AFRICAN PROTEACEAE: ECOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS AND HORTICULTURAL PROBLEMS

The domestication of the Proteaceae is a unique enterprise, in that large wild stocks still occur in the countries of origin.
Many of the horticultural problems encountered in the domestication of the Proteaceae stem from ecological adaptations of the taxa to their natural environments.
This allows a two thier approach to horticultural research: a predominantly physiological approach solving specific problems; and an ecological approach in which environmental and evolutionary constraints are studied.
The combination of these two complementary approaches should reduce the research time needed to resolve specific horticultural problems.
To this end an ecological data base for the southern African Proteaceae is being compiled.
The application of the ecological approach is demonstrated with two examples: by reviewing the literature on seed germination in the southern African Proteaceae in an ecological context; and by comparing patterns of seed set in the different Proteaceous genera in an attempt to explain why such a low seed set is observed.

I International Protea Research Symposium

A.G. Rebelo, J.P. Rourke

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1986.185.8