Rehab Ahmida and Salem Elshatshat
Fire’s phenomenon has the ability to produce flames which send out heat and light as well as smoke. Different plant groups like monocots and dicots and their life stages such as germination, seedling establishment, flowering and seed dispersal can be influenced by fire or one of its derivatives. Butenolide is one of fire smoke components and it described as an important environmental factor which enhance seed germination and improve seedling vigor. Treatingtomato and barley seeds as dicot and monocot cash crop plants in Libya, using concentrations of 0, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1000 ppm of synthesized butenolide, showed that response of both plants were influenced. Seed germination and seedling development is concentration depending. The effect was varying among the concentrations but in general, low concentrations reflect positive effect and, on the other hand, high concentrations caused inhibition due to phytotoxicity of butenolide to the receptor plant cells.
