Artemisia caerulescens L. is a rare aromatic perennial shrub growing in saline or brackish environments of the central and western part of the Mediterranean region. On the other hand, despite its distribution in unstable and highly selective environments such as salt marshes, no data are available on its ecological adaptability or on its growth strategy. In an effort to fill these gaps, we performed three experiments in order to evaluate the effects of selected environmental abiotic factors on the seed germination of A. caerulescens. In the first experiment, we determined the effect of different temperatures, photoperiod regimes and salinity on the germination of 120 days old seeds. Secondly, we tested the germination behaviour of the seeds in relation to seed after-ripening time and salinity. The results showed that a temperature regime of 10/20°C and a photothermoperiod of 12/12 h were optimal conditions for seed germination. Salinity affected the final germination rate and mean time to germination. Until 60 days of after-ripening, the seeds exhibited a primary dormancy state. Then, their germination performance was affected by seed after-ripening time and salinity. The data obtained in this study allow us to outline a fairly accurate picture of the ecological requirements of A. caerulescens during germination and of the degree of viability of its seeds at least in the first year of their life. The significant different susceptibility of the seeds to salinity leads to the conclusion that the spread of this species by seeds strongly depends on soil salinity fluctuations. Knowledge of optimal germination requirements could also be useful for the possible use of plant seeds as propagation material in restoration and biodiversity conservation programmes.

中文翻译：

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芳香盐生植物青蒿的萌发生态：非生物因素和种子后熟时间的影响

Artemisia caerulescens L. 是一种罕见的芳香多年生灌木，生长在地中海地区中西部的盐碱或微咸环境中。另一方面，尽管它分布在盐沼等不稳定和高度选择性的环境中，但没有关于其生态适应性或生长策略的数据。为了填补这些空白，我们进行了三个实验，以评估选定的环境非生物因素对 A. caerulescens 种子萌发的影响。在第一个实验中，我们确定了不同温度、光周期和盐度对 120 天龄种子发芽的影响。其次，我们测试了种子的发芽行为与种子后熟时间和盐度的关系。结果表明，10/20°C的温度和12/12 h的光热周期是种子萌发的最佳条件。盐度影响最终发芽率和平均发芽时间。直到后熟 60 天，种子才呈现初级休眠状态。然后，它们的发芽性能受种子后熟时间和盐度的影响。在这项研究中获得的数据使我们能够相当准确地勾勒出 A. caerulescens 在萌发期间的生态要求及其种子至少在其生命的第一年的生存力程度。种子对盐分的显着不同敏感性导致该物种通过种子的传播强烈依赖于土壤盐分波动的结论。