< 2018

Effect of plant derived smoke on the sprouting of asexual reproductive organs
for three herbaceous perennial plant species

A. F. ABBAS¹, A. MOJZES², T. KALAPOS¹

  ¹Department of Plant Systematics, Ecology and Theoretical Biology, Institute of Biology, Loránd Eötvös University,
H-1117 Budapest, Pázmány P. stny 1/C.; abbas.amira@outlook.com  

²MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Institute of Ecology and Botany,
Alkotmány u. 2-4, H-2163 Vácrátót, Hungary

Accepted: 4 July 2018

Key words: Convallaria majalis, fire, Poa bulbosa, Ranunculus ficaria, smoke water.

It is known since the 1990s that smoke from burning plant biomass can enhance seed germination or seedling growth for numerous plant species. However, our understanding of the effect of plant-derived smoke on the sprouting of asexual reproductive organs is insufcient. In a laboratory experiment, we tested the hypothesis if smoke treatment (applied as aqueous smoke solution, i.e. smoke-water) enhances sprouting of the asexual reproductive organ for three herbaceous perennial plant species: Convallaria majalis L., Poa bulbosa L. and Ranunculus ficaria L. The smoke treated plant organ was rhizome (C. majalis), bulbous shout base (P. bulbosa) or tuberous root (R. ficaria). We recorded first shoot length, first leaf diameter and number of leaves for R. ficaria, shoot length for C. majalis, and rate and speed of sprouting for P. bulbosa. For none of the species and recorded variables had the smoke treatment signifcant difference compared to control (moistened with tap water). However, the smoke treated P. bulbosa’s survival was signifcantly higher, and a higher number of C. majalis individuals compared to control remained alive until the end of the experiment. Thus, our results do not support the hypothesis on the positive effect of plant-derived smoke on the sprouting of asexual reproductive organs. However, the beneficial smoke effect on the survival was shown. This latter result opens an opportunity to use smoke technology in a new aspect: in ex situ conservation programs using propagation from asexual reproductive organs, greater efficiency can be achieved with smoke treatment. Nevertheless, these results are far insuffcient to draw a general conclusion on the issue. Further studies are needed involving a much larger number of plant species and various smoke treatments (e.g. aerosol smoke or different dilutions of smoke-water). 

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