Study of Seed Germination and Morphological Characteristics of a Wild Oat (Avena ludoviciana L.) Seedlings Affected by Shoot Aqueous Extracts of Four Medicinal Plants

In order to study the effect of different aqueous shoot extracts of four medicinal plants consist of: basil (Ocimum basilicum L.), jimson weed (Datura stramonium L.), summer savory (Satureja hortensis L.) and meliaceae (Melia azedarach L.) on seed germination and seedling characteristics of wild oat an experiment was conducted at Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad on 2010. A factorial arrangement based on completely randomized design with four replications was used. The experimental treatments were 4 different medicinal plant aqueous extracts as factor A, and extract concentration in 4 levels (0, 20, 40 and 60 percentage) as factor B. Results showed that medicinal plants aqueous extracts in different concentration had significant effect on measured characters. The highest and the lowest percentage and rate of seed germination, length of radicle and hypocotyle, dry weight of radicle and hypocotyle were obtained in treatments of control and aqueous extracts of datura, respectively. Percentage of seed germination, length of radicle and dry weight of radicle and hypocotyle difference were not significant in aqueous extract of Summer Savory compare with control. All concentrations of aqueous extracts significantly diminish all measured characters compare to control (0% concentrations). The lowest percentage and rate of seed germination were obtained in 60% concentration of all studied plant water extracts.