Inhibitory effects of Artemisia herba-alba on the germination of the gypsophyte Helianthemum squamatum

The potential allelopathic role of Artemisia herba-alba has been evaluated in order to explain the community pattern of the gypsum semiarid environments of central Spain. This pattern shows a sharp ecotone between a gypsophile sparse shrubby community dominated by Helianthemum squamatum, which grows on slopes with gypsum surface crusts, and a nitrohalophilous community on the gypsum alluvial soils of piedmont dominated by Artemisia herba-alba. In order to explain this pattern, resource limitation was discarded because no significant differences in several soil parametrers, but fine earth fraction and organic matter content, had been detected in a previous study. Results confirm the inhibitory effect of aqueous extracts on the final germination percentage of scarified seeds of Helianthemum squamatum and also on the shape of the germination curves, which indicate delay of germination for the aqueous extracts. Assays with soil of the Artemisia community (three types) showed that germination was strongly inhibited in soils obtained below the canopy of mature plants (litter maintained) and retarded in the other treatments. We suggest that the spatial community pattern detected in this gypsum environment and characterised by a sharp ecotone could be at least partially controlled by interference through allelopathy. This determines the excliusion of Helianthemum squamatum plants from alluvial soils.