Tag Archive for: Sanguinaria canadensis seedlings

Thursday with Sanguinaria canadensis seedlings

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A change in the Friday’s seedlings routine.

In late fall I sowed Sanguinaria canadensis seeds directly in the ground in the idea to show how easy is to do it (like for many native species – take note if you have a large woodland garden/for naturalizations projects). To avoid disturbance by the squirrels, I sowed them underneath the leaves of an old Yucca glauca.

Sanguinaria canadensis seedlings

Sowed and forgotten. I found them the other day when preparing to dig out the old Yucca.

In the fall I forgot that the old Yucca was scheduled to be dug out this spring….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Yucca was removed and the seedlings replanted.
Happy ending.

 

The thing about Sanguinaria

…is that the seeds can have two types of morphophysiological dormancy (after Baskin & Baskin):

  • In the first case the roots will emerge in late fall after a warm stratification and the shoots growth will begin in the following spring (= after cold stratification); deep simple epicotyl dormancy.

Sanguinaria canadensis: seeds sown in summer 2016 – complete germination April 2017

  • In the second case (said to occur in about 49% of seeds according to a study), the shoots growth will begin in the second spring after sowing; deep simple double dormancy.

Sanguinaria canadensis: seeds sown in late summer 2015 – complete germination in 2017

The lots of seeds shown were collected from different sites, and I wonder if this was also a decisive/only factor in displaying the different types of dormancy. It is well known that the germination dormancy traits have a genetic component.

Temperatures in the summer/winter may also have role; to be sure I will try to repeat the sowing with seeds of both populations/at the same time. It would be nice to know and collect seeds from certain populations knowing they will germinate in the first year after sowing.

Note: To be clear, for Sanguinaria we are only talking about fresh/or moist kept seeds.

 

Perception

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Vermiculite from Latin ‘vermiculus’ = wormlet

The recently emerged rootlet of bloodroot seed has attached on this vermiculite particle with the same desperation a climber clings onto a rock. A place to grow on, salvation…

Sanguinaria canadensis seedling attached

Sanguinaria canadensis seedling germinated in a bag with vermiculite, growing attached on a vermiculite particle

For us, it remains just an exfoliated fragment of a hydrated silicate mineral; worm-like shaped, lightweight, incombustible, compressible, sterile, with a high cation-exchange capacity…

Only very few Sanguinaria canadensis seeds have started to germinate in moist storage; this one was particularly well developed – good genes probably… The very young rhizome already shows signs of the future red coloration characteristic to Sanguinaria rhizomes.

Sanguinaria canadensis
Sanguinaria canadensis - seedlings