The coastline of South Africa is characterized by extensive dune fields which are threatened by development, and thus the demand of stabilization of drift sand will increase. The non-invasive alien grass species Ammophila arenaria is at present the dominant sand stabilizer. Due to its foreign origin and invasiveness in North America its use was criticized and indigenous sand-binding species would be preferred. The germination requirements of the native Arctotheca populifolia, Ipomoea pes-caprae, Myrica cordifolia and Scaevola plumieri were investigated. The results showed that for all four species the total germination time and germination phase could be shortened and germination success (number of germinated seeds) improved. The different scarification and stratification treatments broke the dormancy of I. pes-caprae, M. cordifolia and S. plumieri, whereas the seeds of A. populifolia were not dormant. Seeds of I. pes-caprae and M. cordifolia had induced an innate dormancy, respectively, whereas the type of dormancy in seeds of S. plumieri dormancy processes remained unknown.

Nomenclature: Arnold & De Wet (1993)