关键词: 荒漠植物, 藜科, 散枝猪毛菜, 胎萌, 种子扩散

Abstract: To understand the desert viviparous species and their ecological adaptive significance, Salsola brachiata （Chenopodiaceae）, an important desert annual grass with vivipary in the deserts of northern Xinjiang, was used as the study material. In the field, different habitat types （i.e. sandy desert, gravel desert and salt desert） of this species were selected for the investigation of vivipary at the two germination seasons （autumn and spring）. Also, the viviparous phenology in spring was further observed. Our results indicated that vivipary only occurred at the time of snowmelt in spring 2022 in all habitat types, but not in autumn 2021. Moreover, spring vivipary found in the habitat sites with snow cover and the mother plants with the fruits remained. The final vivipary percentage was 46.6% in the observation site, and the period of spring vivipary was about one month. Our study confirmed that the vivipary of the annual Chenopodiaceae species S. brachiata was induced by high humidity during the spring snowmelt, which is an adaptive strategy of the germination mechanism to unpredictable precipitation conditions in the northern Xinjiang desert.

Key words: Desert plant, Chenopodiaceae, Salsola brachiata, Vivipary, Seed dispersal