ABSTRACT

Montezuma cypress (Taxodium. mucronatum) is an ecological, cultural and economically valuable riparian tree species. Two experiments evaluating the effectiveness of various seed treatments were conducted to identify germination best practices and to evaluate the dynamics of the germination process. Seeds were collected on two occasions, one year apart, from the only remaining natural T. mucronatum tree stand in the United States. The seeds were subjected to various soaking and stratification conditions. Across all treatments, germinability ranged between approximately 30%-40%, with slightly higher values occurring among the second seed cohort. Overall, no significant differences in germinability were detected in either study, however, soaking seeds in water for 96 hours and stratifying them in moist conditions for 3 weeks significantly accelerated the germination process. Seeds soaked briefly in a NaOH solution followed by a 48-hour water soak demonstrated more synchronous germination than other treatments. Control conditions in which seeds were not soaked or stratified exhibited the slowest germination. These findings are consistent with previous evidence showing that T. mucronatum seeds do not exhibit physiological dormancy and that treatments promoting seed water imbibition enhance the germination process. This study adds to the limited available research on T. mucronatum propagation practices and offers novel data on the germination parameters of seeds sourced from a natural U.S. stand, rather than seeds from few scattered individual trees, as in previous reports. Seed germination recommendations garnered from this study can improve nursery production of T. mucronatum to enhance ecological restoration efforts and ornamental production.

摘要

蒙特祖玛柏树（Taxodium。mucronatum）是具有生态，文化和经济价值的河岸树种。进行了两个评估各种种子处理效果的实验，以确定发芽的最佳实践并评估发芽过程的动力学。每年两次从唯一剩余的天然粘液T. mucronatum收集种子树站在美国。种子经受各种浸泡和分层条件。在所有处理中，发芽率在大约30％-40％之间，第二个种子队列中的发芽率略高。总体而言，在两项研究中均未发现可发芽性的显着差异，但是，将种子在水中浸泡96小时并将其在潮湿条件下分层3周可显着加速发芽过程。种子在NaOH溶液中短暂浸泡后再浸泡48小时，与其他处理相比，种子发芽更为同步。种子未浸透或未分层的对照条件下萌发最慢。这些发现与以前的证据表明粘液丁香种子不表现出生理休眠，促进种子水分吸收的处理可增强发芽过程。这项研究增加了关于毛冠毛虫繁殖实践的有限研究，并提供了有关来自美国天然林分的种子发芽参数的新颖数据，而不是像以前的报道那样来自很少散落的树木的种子的发芽参数。从这项研究中获得的种子发芽建议可以改善毛冠木的苗圃生产，以增强生态修复工作和观赏性生产。