@article{Majidi_Najafipoor_2023, title={Inter-Specific Variation for Germination and Seedling Properties and Evaluation of Breaking Seed Dormancy in Different Species of Onobrychis Mill.}, volume={13}, url={https://oiccpress.com/journal-of-rangeland-science/article/inter-specific-variation-for-germination-and-seedling-properties-and-evaluation-of-breaking-seed-dormancy-in-different-species-of-onobrychis-mill/}, DOI={10.57647/j.jrs.2023.1304.32}, abstractNote={The genus Onobrychis Mill. comprises a few agronomically important forage legume species, with Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) being the most widespread. There are few studies on the dormancy pattern of Onobrychis wild species. This investigation was conducted to evaluate inter-specific variation for germination and seedling properties and evaluation of breaking seed dormancy in different species of Onobrychis during 2017. The treatments were control (seeds with pods were germinated in petri dishes immersed in distilled water), mechanical scarification, chilling, seedbed and chemical scarification. Seeds in the control treatment showed very low germination, ranging from 0% to 10% among species. In comparison, between physical treatments, seed pod removal significantly (P<0.01) increased germination percentage and germination rate in all species. Germination percentages of seed pod removal treatment ranged from 50% (in O. vassilczenkoi and O. inermis) to 92.0% (in O. persica). The results indicate that the application of acid scarification treatment depends on species and duration of application of acid. Acid scarification for 7 minutes resulted in the increase in germination percentage and germination rate of O. caput-galli, O. inermis, O. vassilczenkoi and O. persica (P<0.01). Whereas application of sulfuric acid for 15 minutes increased germination in O. montana, O. caput-galli, O. argyrea and O. arenaria much more than other treatments (P<0.01). Chilling treatments had no significant effects on germination. Overall, results indicated that there was high variation among the different species of Onobrychis which is important for the improvement of seed germination in future programs for seed germination approaches. Based on the results, it can be suggested that sowing in peat and seed pod removal treatments can be the most effective methods in the germination of sainfoin species.}, number={4}, journal={Journal of Rangeland Science}, publisher={OICC Press}, author={Majidi, Mohammad Mahdi and Najafipoor, Baran}, year={2023}, month={Nov.}, keywords={Wild relatives, Diversity, Sainfoin, Scarification} }