DORMANCY IN HOMERIA BREYNIANA (L.) LEWIS

Abstract

Summary. The variation in the percentage of dormant corms of Homeria breyniana between sites and years was shown for a 3‐year period. The highest dormancy count of 61 % was obtained at Wagin in 1959 while the lowest count of 1% was also obtained in 1959 at Muchea. It was demonstrated that soil surface cover plays an important part in corm dormancy. In 1961 the removal of the surface cover by burning almost eliminated dormancy. Removing the cover at three dates during the summer did not affect the germination of corms during the late autumn. Moreover, corms left in the soil throughout the summer exhibited no physiological dormancy in April. In laboratory tests the percentage germination steadily decreased as the test temperatures were reduced from 25 to 5° C. Soil temperatures follow a similar decline in Western Australia during April and May. Light rains of 12 and 14 points (100 points = 1 in.) gave a significant increase in soil moisture where the surface was bare. Sufficient moisture penetrated to cause a general germination of corms and this resulted in H. breyniana emerging on bare soil some 3 weeks earlier than where surface cover was present. The diurnal temperature range at this time was 54–68° F. The break of the season (the beginning of the growing season) did not occur until 17 days later, and the diurnal soil temperature range had dropped to 49–54° F. Corms subjected to germination tests at these two temperature ranges gave a 90% and 70% sprouting respectively. La dormance des bulbes de Homeria breyniana (L.) Lewis