The Study of Seed Stratification and Germination in Amygdalus Species of Iran

Iran is considered the center of origin for many plant genetic resources of the world. Twenty one wild species of the Amygdalus have been identified in Iran, of which ten are supposed to be endemic species. In the first experiment, GA3 (0, 250, 500, 750 ppm) was applied for 24 hours on four accessions of wild almond seeds and then stratified at 5 degrees C in Perlite media. In the second experiment seeds of six wild almonds were stratified at 5 degrees C. Seed germination was recorded in 3 days intervals. Root tip emerging was considered as seed germination. Germination percentage, vigor index and root emerging factors were calculated in both experiments. In the first experiment, analysis of germination percentage, index of vigor and root initiation factors were significantly different in almond accessions (p <= 0.01), but GA3 treatments were not significantly different. In the second experiment, germination percentage and vigor index were significantly different at p <= 0.01 and root initiation at p <= 0.05 in almond wild types.