Research On The Dormancy Mechanism Of Holly Seeds

Holly seeds belonging to a type of comprehensive deep dormancy. In the nature, It germinate on the second year of the third year. In this study the dormancy characteristics of Holly seeds are studied through experiments such as the water absorption of seeds coats and the biotic measurement of the methanol extract of Holly seeds coats. The quick dormancy-breaking techniques of Holly seeds are studied through two kinds of treatment. One treatment is soaking the seeds in concentrated sulphuric acid first, soaking the seeds in GA₃ 48 hours, and the stratifying seeds under different temperatures. The other treatment is stratifying seeds under natural temperatures. And during the stratification treatment, the content of starch, the content of soluble sugar, the content of endogenous hormones and the activity of the amylase in the seeds are measured to find out the germination physiology of Holly seeds.The results are as followings: There are three layers in the seed coat of Holly seeds, They are external seed coat, mid seed coat and inner seed coat. The hardness seed shell block the bourgeon of Holly seeds, but through the seeds shell and coat absorb water, the seeds shell and coat are not the most reason of the dormancy.The biotic measurement results of the methanol extract of Holly seeds coat show that the methanol extract contains some germination-restraining substance which could reduce cabbage seed germination and suppress seedling and root growth, the high concentration treatment. This result shows that some germination-restraining substances in Holly seeds coat could result in the dormancy.During seeds stratification under different temperatures to break dormancy, the content of GA, IAA and CTK are increased, at the same time the content of ABA reduces, but the ratio of GA/ABA, IAA/ABA and CTK/ABA increased. The result proved that the dormancy not only with the contents of hormone but also with the ratio of hormone. During seeds stratification under nature temperature, the total activity of the amylase increase, amylolysis accelerates, the content of starch reduces, the contents of soluble sugar increase continuously.