Effects of Drought Stress on Artemisia sieberi Besser Germination Behavior

The Artemisia sieberi Besser plant belongs to the Asteraceae family which disperses in dry lands. This species is resistance to drought and plays an important role on preserving the soil in dry regions. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of drought stress on the Artemisia sieberi Besser germination behavior. To evaluate the drought treatment effect on the Artemisia sieberi Besser plant germination, the seeds were pre-chilled for 9 days at zero to 5 oC for its dormancy duration to remove its dormancy. Moisture stress test was carried out with 0, -0.2, -0.4 and -0.6 MPa treatments using PEG solutions in petri dishes under a random plot. The results of this experiments showed that the water potential has a very significant different on the rate and percentage of germination, plumule length and allometry ratios, and is significant on one percent level, in a way that rate and percentage of germination is decreased through the water potential decrease, But radicle length is significantly less sensitive on drought stress in comparison with other features. As through stress increasing, the radicle length would be increased till -0.6 MPa and then in would be decreased.

Artemisia sieberi, Drought stress, Germination, Allometry ratios