Abstract:Artemisia sphaerocephala Krasch. is a dominant shrub in large areas of active and stabilized sandy deserts of northwest China. The seeds of A. sphaerocephala are light sensitive, germinating in light but poorly in dark. The optimal temperature for germination is 25℃. At 10℃ and 30℃ germination velocity was slow and reached low total percentages, at 5℃ germination was inhibited. The deeper the seeds were placed in sand, the lower and slower was their germination. No seedlings emerged from achenes located at 2 cm or more cm. However, when the upper layer of sand was removed leaving deep buried seeds at under just 0.5 cm of sand, their germination reached the same percentages as the seeds located 0.5 cm deep from the beginning of wetting, but at a faster rate. With higher sand moisture content, from 1.7% to 14.7% water content, germination was earlier. From 19.4 % soil moisture germination was delayed and seedlings remained undeveloped.