Arid land plants are adapted to limited and erratic rainfall. For that, they implement several strategies. Some species can germinate and establish even in years of drought (precipitation below the average). Other species germinate only in ?exceptionally? wet years. In addition, speed of germination represents another strategy where some species germinate quickly after a rain event, while others do it slowly. Rainfall in the Chihuahuan desert is very irregular and only in few years rainfall is above the average. Therefore, we evaluated germination, establishment and speed of germination of nine native plant species of the Chihuahuan desert with different wet-dry sequences. These wet-dry sequences were obtained from previous studies that analyzed rainfall patterns in the state of Chihuahua, M�xico during a period of 35 years. The evaluated species were Acacia greggii, Agave Americana, A. lechuguilla, Menodora scabra, Plantago patagonica, Tecoma stans, Viguiera decurrens, Yucca elata, and Zinnia grandiflora. The rate and speed of germination of all the species were reduced by low soil moisture. The highest wet-dry sequence obtained the highest germination values. The species T. stans and A. greggii had the highest germination rate (P<0.05) with 59.52 and 53.57%, respectively. Seedling establishment was also affected by soil moisture with only A. greggii getting established in all of the sequences evaluated. In contrast, all the other species got established only in the high wet-dry sequences. This study sets the basis for a propagation protocol and an ecological restoration efforts using native plant species from the Chihuahuan desert.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.