The effects of different treatments on seed germination and evaluation seedling establishment in Linum album Ky. Ex Boiss. Populations

Linum album Ky. Ex Boiss. is a perennial herb from Linaceae family, which have lignans that are anti-cancer compounds. Like other medicinal herbs the seeds of Linum album due to exposure to particular ecological conditions have dormancy, therefore, identification of ecophysiological factors that affecting on dormancy and determining the optimal conditions for seed germination and establishment of plants is essential to produce them. So in order to perform three experiments includes: investigation the effect of 15 different treatments on dormancy breaking (completely randomized design), germination (completely randomized design) and seedling establishment of different populations (randomized complete block design), seeds of these plants were collected in June 2014 from 13 sites. The results of this study showed that the effect of different treatments on germination percentage and other germination indices was significant at 1% level. In the control treatment, no germination occurred. The best results observed in 1000 ppm GA with 88.33 percent germination. The highest percentage of germination and seedling establishment observed in populations A4 (78.08%) and A6 (41.33%). To remove dormancy in Linum album it is proposed that we use combined GA treatment with stratification. Also, based on the indices studied, the use of populations A1 and A6 is recommended for improvement of breeding programs.