Seeds of some barberry species have embryo with physiological dormancy that requires a cold stratification for germination. Berberis amurensis Rupr. is a native species of Japan, Korea, the Russian far east, and parts of China. This specific plant is important for its edible fruits and rhizomes with high medicine value. This study aimed to determine the effect of stratification on germination and physiological change of B. amurensis. Seeds were placed on sterilized sand medium moistened with distilled water in 9 cm diameter petri dishes and stored at 4 and 25˚C for 0, 15, 30, 45 and 60 days. Each treatment had 40 seeds per replica, and three repetitions per treatment. Immediately after stratification, total phenolics contents (TPC) was analyzed and seeds incubated at 15/6˚C for 12 weeks. Warm stratification had a significant effect on seed forcing for germination than cold stratification treatment. At 25˚C for 60 days, stratified seed showed highest germination percentage (25.7±4.3%) and germination started in 14 days of the stored period. Whereas TPC was significantly decreased with increasing stored period. Contrastively, cold stratification had no effect on the germination ability. In the same way germination percentage of non-stratified seeds were also zero. The results confirmed that B. amurensis seeds were in a dormant state and warm stratification increased the germination ability by breaking of dormancy.

Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
    1. Collection of materials
    2. Seed characteristic
    3. Toluidine blue staining seed histology
    4. Water absorption test of seed
    5. Stratification treatment
    6. Extraction and determination of total phenolics
    7. Germination test
    8. Statistical data analysis
Results and Discussion
    1. Seed characteristic
    2. Toluidine blue staining seed histology
    3. Water absorption of seed
    4. Changes in total phenolics of seeds afterstratification
    5. Germination test of seeds after cold and warmstratification
Acknowledgement
References

• Seong Hyeon Yong(Post-doc, Division of forest biodiversity, Korea National Arboretum, Pocheon 11186, Korea)
• Ye Rim Choi(Master’s degree Researcher, Division of forest biodiversity, Korea National Arboretum, Pocheon 11186, Korea)
• Ara Cho(Post-doc, Division of forest biodiversity, Korea National Arboretum, Pocheon 11186, Korea)
• Yeon Ji Lee(Master’s degree Researcher, Division of forest biodiversity, Korea National Arboretum, Pocheon 11186, Korea)
• Balkrishna Ghimire(Assistant Professor, Faculty of Forestry, Agriculture and Forestry University, Hetauda, Makawanpur, Nepal)
• Hyuk Jin Kim(Senior Researcher, Division of forest biodiversity, Korea National Arboretum, Pocheon 11186, Korea)
• Mi Jin Jeong(Researcher, Division of forest biodiversity, Korea National Arboretum, Pocheon 11186, Korea) Corresponding author