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• Main Authors: Lilja Karlsdóttir, Ása L. Aradóttir
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: establishment; native species; restoration YFIRLIT Fjölgun holtasóleyjar og ljónslappa með sáningu og græðlingum; Dryas octopetala; Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.575.7691; http://www.ias.is/landbunadur/wgsamvef.nsf/5ed2a07393fec5fa002569b300397c5a/a6c185f7c65654b5002572160076cc75/$file/propagation of dryas.pdf

Experiments focused on propagation of Dryas octopetala and Alchemilla alpina were established on wind eroded sites in South Iceland. Seeds were sown in four microsite types and cuttings were planted in a sandy gravel soil with and without added fertilizer (N, P). D. octopetala seedlings emerged in 88 % of seeding spots. Seedling survival was best in biological soil crust, lowest in gravel bed and intermediate in moss microsites or under dwarf shrubs. Very few A. alpina seedlings emerged during the first growing season but appeared in 96 % of seeding spots in the second year. Seedling survival was greatest in biological soil crust and lowest in gravel or moss. Five percent of D. octopetala-cuttings and eighty percent of A. alpina base-stem cuttings sur-vived for one year. After three years most of the fertilized A. alpina plants and some of the unfertilized ones survived, but the D. octopetala plants were all dead. The results show sowing as a promising method for prop-agation of both species, but planting of cuttings was also successful for A. alpina. Utilization of these species in restoration, e.g. to increase floral diversity, should be tested further.