Introduction
Acacia Decurrens is an Australian tree commonly known as black wattle. Like many Australian acacias, it has been introduced to other parts of the world. In South Africa, it listed as Declared Invasive (South African Department of Environmental Affairs, 2016), along with several other species of acacia, due to negative impacts on native flora (Henderson, 1989). This negative impart comes largely the ability of acacia species to germination prolifically and rapidly under conditions of extreme heat (such as fire) leading to out-competition of other plants (Jeffery, Holmes and Rebelo, 1988). Previous studies have proven that many species of acacia have a higher rate of germination and germinate more often when pre-treated in higher temperature conditions than in lower temperature conditions (Aref, 2011; Rasebeka, 2014).
This experiment aimed to discover if temperature effects the germination of acacia decurrens seeds. If the seeds are heated under two different temperatures and soaked in water then the seeds heated under the higher temperature will show greater and faster germination compared to the seeds treated under the lower temperature. Both sets of heated seeds will show greater and faster germination compared to the seeds that were soaked but not heated (control).
Method …show more content…
An oven was set to 75°C and 10 seeds (2 batches) were heated for 10 minutes. Another 10 seeds (2 batches) were heated at 100°C for 10 minutes. The remaining 10 seeds (2 batches) were used as controls and not heated at all. All batches were placed in 6 separate glass containers (1 batch per container) with 100mL of tap water and soaked for 24 hours. Each batch was spread across a separate 6cm diameter cotton wool pad that had been moistened with tap water. Germination was recorded when the root broke through the seed
Acacia Decurrens is an Australian tree commonly known as black wattle. Like many Australian acacias, it has been introduced to other parts of the world. In South Africa, it listed as Declared Invasive (South African Department of Environmental Affairs, 2016), along with several other species of acacia, due to negative impacts on native flora (Henderson, 1989). This negative impart comes largely the ability of acacia species to germination prolifically and rapidly under conditions of extreme heat (such as fire) leading to out-competition of other plants (Jeffery, Holmes and Rebelo, 1988). Previous studies have proven that many species of acacia have a higher rate of germination and germinate more often when pre-treated in higher temperature conditions than in lower temperature conditions (Aref, 2011; Rasebeka, 2014).
This experiment aimed to discover if temperature effects the germination of acacia decurrens seeds. If the seeds are heated under two different temperatures and soaked in water then the seeds heated under the higher temperature will show greater and faster germination compared to the seeds treated under the lower temperature. Both sets of heated seeds will show greater and faster germination compared to the seeds that were soaked but not heated (control).
Method …show more content…
An oven was set to 75°C and 10 seeds (2 batches) were heated for 10 minutes. Another 10 seeds (2 batches) were heated at 100°C for 10 minutes. The remaining 10 seeds (2 batches) were used as controls and not heated at all. All batches were placed in 6 separate glass containers (1 batch per container) with 100mL of tap water and soaked for 24 hours. Each batch was spread across a separate 6cm diameter cotton wool pad that had been moistened with tap water. Germination was recorded when the root broke through the seed