Abstract:

To research the mechanism of dormancy and find out the breaking method for the seeds of Epimedium pseudowushanense B. L. Guo, the seeds were treated with different treatments. The time of embryos begin to grow, the growth of embryos and the germination rate with these treatments were observed. The result showed that the seeds of E. pseudowushanense exhibited Morphophysiological Dormancy (MPD), and required warm stratification(15℃) followed by cold stratification(4℃), or treating with GA3 followed by cold stratification to break this dormancy, the germination rates were over 80% in these two conditions. As to E. pseudowushanense seeds, two types of PD as well as MD appeared to be involved in the dormancy. Warm temperature was required to break one kind of PD, otherwise embryos could not grow, merely 20% (6.7%) of embryos began to grow in 4℃(27℃) only. The low temperatures were required to break MD, but seeds could not germinate until low temperatures overcome the second type of PD, or the germination rates were 0%. GA3 could substitute for warm temperatures to break the first kind of PD.