ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Study of the germinative behaviour of Aristolochia baetica L. seeds of Tessala mount (west of Algeria)

Our work consists to study the germinative behaviour of the seeds of Aristolochia baetica L. of Tessala Mount (western Algeria), endemic species of western Algeria, Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula. The germination tests were carried out under controlled conditions, in Petri dishes lined with filter paper. We studied the effect of some physicochemical pretreatments on the improvement of germination capacity of seeds. The effect of temperature, water and salt stress has also been studied. The results show that the seeds of Aristolochia baetica are dormant and that only pretreatment with gibberellic acid (GA3), soaking in distilled water and stratification have been able to remove their inability to germinate. The optimum thermal of germination is between 15 °C and 20 °C. The seeds of Aristolochia baetica are very sensitive to water stress, their tolerance level is -0.19 bar beyond which their germination is inhibited. However, they are intolerant to salinity.