Effect of water stress on the germination and stage growth of B. papyrifera L. seedlings

• 1、Garden and Art College, Jiangxi Agricultural University
• 2、Zhejiang HuZhou Teachers College

Abstract：Germination experiments of the H2O2 pre-treatmented B. papyrifera seeds on drought stress showed that the seeds can sprout under 5%-30% water content range, and 20% is the optimal water content for germination. Indexes such as germination rate, length of bud, germination speed and germination exponent reduced with decreasing of water content. Nevertheless, even when the water content was reduced to 5%, germination rate could still reach 40.7%, with decreased hypocotyls/ridcal.,suggesting that B. papyrifera seeds are capable of germinating under water stress. The plant’s growth response in short time to drought stress was observed in four different percentages of soil moisture, including 85%-90% (CK), 70%-75% (slight stress, LD), 55%-60% (moderate stress, MD), 30%-35% (severe stress, VD). Our results show that the relative growth rate of plant height and basal diameter significantly reduced under drought stress, and that the decreasing became larger as the drought stress grew severer while root/shoot ratio gradually increased. In other words, B. papyrifera seedlings can adapt to drought stress by modifing plant structure and increasing biomass allocation into the root component.

Keywords： B. papyrifera L. water stress germination growth