TEMPERATURE RELATIONS OF GERMINATION

The temperature responses of germination of a number of species are briefly surveyed with particular reference to interactions between temperature and other factors of the environment.

Comparisons are drawn between the germination strategies’ of species occurring naturally in two distinctively different phyto-geographical zones in Europe: the Mediterranean basin and the areas naturally occupied by climax deciduous woodland.

The implications of the natural germination responses of species found in these areas in relation to their suitability as cultivated plants are discussed, and the conclusion drawn that few adaptive changes in the germination character have occurred as a result of a species being introduced into cultivation.

It is suggested that the germination response of wild species was a major factor responsible for mankind’s incidental selection of particular geographical regions as centres of origin of cultivated crop plants.

Symposium on Seed Problems in Horticulture

P.A. Thompson

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1978.83.25