Effect of Seed Treatment on Germination of Wild Safflower

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Abstract
Seeds of wild safflower (Carthamus oxyacantha Bieb.) collected from the Bajgah area, Iran, in 2 successive years were subjected to stratification and scarification treatments and their germination percentage and subsequent seedling growth (length) were measured at room temperature (23 ± 2 C). Maximum germination and seedling length occurred in the seeds stratified in moist sand at 4 C for 2 weeks. The response of the freshly-harvested seed to scarification was linear while that for 1-yr-old seed was quadratic. Both scarification and stratification independently increased germination but germination never reached the viability level of the seed.