In vitro germination and seedling development of tunisian caper (Capparis spinosa L.)

<strong><em>Capparis spinosa L. (Capparaceae) </em></strong>is a perennial tropical and subtropical shrub plant known worldwide. Despite the increasing demand and economic importance of capers, little information is available regarding the propagation of this shrub. In fact, it is usually propagated by seed, but its percentage of germination is very low. In this report, in vitro seed germination and seedling development of four caper populations were studied and several treatments were evaluated to determine the ability of several factors to increase the percentage of germination. The seeds were treated with sulfuric acid (H2SO4) for 30 min. These seeds were left out in two different germination media (MS and H2O), for 30 days by soaking them in 1000 or 2000 mg.l-1 of GA3 each for 6, 12, 24 or 48 h. High variability was observed among the germination percentages of the different treatments varying from 4.16 to 75%. The variability was due to the Gibberellic acid level (GA3), to the genotype and to the media culture. The highest germination rate of 75% was obtained from the Nahli site seeds treated with 2000 mg.l-1 GA3 for 48 hours. <strong>International Journal of Agronomy and Agricultural Research - IJAAR</strong> is an open-access <strong>scholarly research journal</strong>, published by <strong>International Network for Natural Sciences</strong>. IJAAR publishes original <strong>scientific research articles</strong> in the field of <em><strong>Agronomy</strong></em> and <em><strong>Agricultural Sciences.</strong></em> IJAAR published 2 Volume and 12 issue per the calendar year.