The major components of annual seed deposition in the rain forest at Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, México are seeds of the pioneer tree species Cecropia obtusifolia and those of some species of Ficus. Cecropia obtusifolia Bertol. forms a relatively persistent viable soil seed bank, whereas seeds of Ficus are seldom found in the soil. Both genera require light for seed germination; however, the species...

The production of two or more seed types by a single plant is known as seed heteromorphism. There have been many comparisons of seed traits or growth between plants grown from heteromorphic seeds. However, information is scarce regarding the mineral contents of adult plants from heteromorphic seeds. We herein present biomass and mineral profiles of adult plants grown from dimorphic seeds (non-d...

Abstract The gases used: ethylene (C 2 H 4 ), hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and nitric oxide (NO) showed a high activity as inductors of germination in primary dormant or non-dormant seeds exposed to stress suboptimal temperatures. So far, research on the role ethylene, has involved these during seed germination. This work describes gas-priming novel method for treating air dry genus Amaranthus servin...

We investigated the sensitivity of dormant Polish-provenance Fraxinus excelsior L. seeds to extreme desiccation and liquid nitrogen (LN, -196 degrees C). Germination and seedling emergence tests revealed that the critical water content (WC) of the desiccated seeds was 0.04-0.06 g H(2)O g(-1) dry mass, g g(-1) (0.04 g g(-1) in the germination test and 0.06 g g(-1) in the seedling emergence test)...

Setaria viridis has recently emerged as a promising genetic model system to study diverse aspects of monocot biology. While the post-germination life cycle of S. viridis is approximately 8 weeks long, the prolonged dormancy of freshly harvested seeds can more than double the total time required between successive generations. Here we describe methods that promote seed germination in S. viridis....