Breaking seed dormancy of three orthodox Mediterranean Rosaceae species

Biodiversity levels could be enhanced when regenerating a site by seed-derived seedlings. However, seed dormancy poses limitations for many species. As a result, nurseries either produce seedlings from species where dormancy is not an obstacle, or they propagate through cuttings with the risk of decreasing the genetic diversity within and among species at the regenerated sites. In the present study, breaking of seed dormancy was investigated in valuable Mediterranean species of Prunus avium, Prunus spinosa and Rosa canina Specifically, in order to break dormancy, seeds of those species were warm-, cold-stratified and chemically treated. Based on the results, maximum germination for P. avium was 12% when seeds were warm stratified for four weeks altered with eight weeks of cold stratification. For P. spinosa, maximum percent germination was 26% when seeds were warm stratified for two weeks and continuously altered for eight weeks of cold stratification. Finally, for R. canina maximum percent germination was 40% under four weeks of warm stratification altered with twenty weeks of cold stratification, when seeds were pretreated with H2SO4 for 15 min. A maximum of twelve weeks of cold stratification for P. avium, P. spinosa and 20 weeks for R. canina provided almost zero percent germination. The results indicated that all three species experienced intense dormancy levels suggesting that those species need to be treated properly prior to sowing. Nonetheless, additional experiments are needed to achieve greater germination percentage of highly valuable species in orderto encourage seed derived seedling production.