Germination of Lesser-Known Species of Acacia and Other Caesalpinioideae

Abstract

The subfamily Caesalpinioideae contains 5096 accepted species and 519 unplaced species according to the World Flora Online (WFO) Plant List. For the past 10 years, we have experimented with 585 taxa of Acacias and other Caesalpinioideae. These seeds have very similar germination profiles. While there has been extensive research, especially in Australia, we have only found 173 research papers for 319 taxa. Upon the time of writing, we have done 1,754 experiments. This paper proposes a return to our experiments especially for species without any known research. Our methods are based on nursery work in view of planting in the botanical garden of Château Pérouse. For this to work, we have developed a range of tools in order to create microclimates as well as substrates for the nursery and the garden. These also give the possibility of testing the response to climate change in the garden.