The Effect of Seed Pretreatments on the Germination Performance of Seeds of Some Wild Mountain Tea Species Collected from Nature

Abstract

The genus Sideritis L., a member of the Lamiaceae family, includes over 150 species worldwide. The genus, which is distributed in the Mediterranean basin, is widespread in the Western and Southern Anatolia regions of Türkiye. In Türkiye, this genus is represented by 44 species (55 taxa), 41 of which are endemic. In this study, priming treatments were conducted on seeds collected from nature, belonging to four endemic Sideritis species: Sideritis argyrea, Sideritis brevibracteata, Sideritis erythrantha var. cedretorum, and Sideritis psidica. Twelve distinct seed pretreatments were conducted on these species. The experiment employed a randomized plot design, with each treatment consisting of 3 replicates and was performed under controlled environmental conditions. The results indicate that the differences between species and treatments, along with the species×treatment interaction, were statistically significant at the 1% significance level. Among the treatments, “Soaking in distilled water at room temperature for 24 h” and “Mechanical scarification using sandpaper” resulted in a high germination rate and increased the number of germinated seeds. Conversely, “Heat shock treatment in hot water at 60°C followed by rapid cooling,” as well as “Soaking in 100 ppm GA₃ solution for 24 h + germination in 1% KNO₃,” failed to induce germination. The highest germination values were recorded for Sideritis erythrantha var. cedretorum, whereas the lowest values were observed in Sideritis psidica. The evaluation of the application results indicated that the highest germination rate was achieved by soaking the seeds of Sideritis erythrantha var. cedretorum in distilled water for 24 hours at room temperature, leading to a germination rate of 26.67% and a total of 5.33seeds germinated.