%A LUO Ya-Huang-, ZHANG Ling %T Germination Characteristics of Dendrophthoe pentandra Seeds %0 Journal Article %D 2013 %J Plant Diversity %R 10.7677/ynzwyj201312064 %P 73-80 %V 35 %N 1 %U {https://journal.kib.ac.cn/CN/abstract/article_33121.shtml} %8 2013-01-25 %X

The biological characteristics of seed germination and the effects of dispersal birds on the seed germination of Dendrophthoe pentandra were explored in this paper. Results showed that the seeds of D.pentandra were sensitive to the light and temperature. The germination percentage in light condition was significantly higher than that under dark condition. The most suitable temperature for the seed germination of D.pentandra was 20℃, it could be as high as 53.8%, and few seeds germinated when the temperature was 10℃ or 35℃. Our observation identified that Dicaeum concolor was the dominant disperser of D.pentandra seeds in our study sites. We also confirmed that the duration of germination become shorter when the pulp was manually peeled but the germination percentage did not significantly change. However, the germination percentage was significantly higher (69%) when the seeds were digested by D.concolor, to compare with those of intact seeds or manually extracted pulp seeds. Our results indicated that D.concolor made larger contribution to improve the seed germination of D.pentandra.