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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Agron.
Sec. Weed Management
Volume 6 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fagro.2024.1352303
Russian thistle (Salsola tragus L.) serotiny promotes simultaneous aerial and soil seedbanks
Provisionally accepted- Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Lethbridge, Canada
Some plant species retain mature seeds in plant canopies aboveground which are released later during opportune windows for germination and establishment. This process, known as serotiny, can lead to aerial seedbanks that exist simultaneously with soil seedbanks. However, little is known about how serotiny affects the persistence of weed seeds in the aerial seedbank. A randomized-stratified survey of 117 sites in southern Alberta, Canada, was conducted in 2022 to determine whether the summer-annual tumbleweed Russian thistle (Salsola tragus L.) exhibits seed serotiny. The observational study confirmed that Russian thistle plants exhibit serotiny and that the seeds can exist simultaneously in aerial and soil seedbanks. On average, the plants sampled retained 332 ± 62 viable seeds plant-1 seven to eight months after senescence. This time frame followed winter and emergence of the subsequent generation of plants from the soil seedbank. Russian thistle plants that were attached to the soil retained about double (P = 0.0274) the number of seeds (549 ± 133 viable seeds plant-1) than those detached from the soil (270 ± 71 viable seeds plant-1), likely due to seeds dislodging during movement of the tumbleweeds with prevailing winds. Seeds persisting in aerial seedbanks could evade decay, predation, or lethal germination leading to seed mortality in the soil seedbank, and increase the likelihood of seed persistence and successful establishment of new plants in stressful environments.
Keywords: Amaranthaceae, Bradyspory, Persistence, seed production, Seed retention
Received: 07 Dec 2023; Accepted: 23 Aug 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Geddes and Pittman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Charles M. Geddes, Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Lethbridge, Canada
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