Background:

Direct seeding of native species can be a good alternative in terms of benefit / cost for restoration in semi-arid ecosystems. In these cases, it is essential to have data on the germinability, percentage and mean germination time to define strategies that ensure a sufficient and timely quantity of plant.

Questions and / or Hypotheses:

Does the germinability and mean germination time of representative seeds of the Mexican Altiplano change, in a period of two years? What percentage of germination does each species present?

Studied species:

Frankenia gypsophila, Machaeranthera pinnatifida, Muhlenbergia villiflora, Scleropogon brevifolius, Dasyochloa pulchella and Zinnia anomala.

Study site and dates:

Grasslands of the RTP El Tokio and the Forest Sciences Faculty Labs from 2017 to 2019.

Methods:

The germinability of seeds was evaluated, by means of germination tests, of six species of the grasslands of the RTP El Tokio, after zero, eight, 24 and 27 months of field collection.

Results:

Only one species (Frankenia gypsophila) remained viable after 27 months and by that date its germination percentage was three times lower with respect to the first two dates. All the evaluated species presented t50 values lower than seven days.

Conclusions:

The percentage and mean germination time of the studied species will allow estimating the number of seeds required to obtain the desired density in a sowing for restoration purposes. The results suggest that these species are not suitable for preservation in an ex-situ seed bank stored under semi-controlled environmental conditions.

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