Gorse (Ulex europaeus L.) is a major agricultural and environmental weed in many parts of the world and has a persistent seedbank. Several techniques were investigated to either kill the seed or encourage it to germinate. Scarification of the seed coat resulted in almost complete germination of seeds. Smoked water had little effect on intact seed and high concentrations killed scarified seed. G...

Angiosperm fruits typically consist of pericarp and seed, which collectively function to maximize plant reproductive success. Within-fruit reproductive allocation has been scarcely examined across a wide range of fruit types and taxa although it is critical to the understanding of the evolution of fruit size and seed size. We investigated seed size, fruit size, seed number per fruit (SNF), and ...

Structural differences such as abnormalities, damage and free spaces in seeds may affect germination. The aim of this study was to study the relationship between eggplant seed morphology and seed germination. Ten seed lots of the eggplant cultivar Embu were evaluated by X-ray image analysis and the germination test. Seed image analysis was performed by Image Pro Plus® software and the whole see...

We compared the implant quality of intraoperatively built custom-linked (IBCL) seeds with loose seeds in permanent prostate brachytherapy. Between June 2012 and January 2015, 64 consecutive prostate cancer patients underwent brachytherapy with IBCL seeds (n = 32) or loose seeds (n = 32). All the patients were treated with 144 Gy of brachytherapy alone. Brachytherapy was performed using a dynami...

Most tropical plants produce fleshy fruits that are dispersed primarily by vertebrate frugivores. Behavioral disparities among vertebrate seed dispersers could influence patterns of seed distribution and thus forest structure. This study investigated the relative importance of arboreal seed dispersers and seed predators on the initial stage of forest organization—seed deposition. We asked the f...

Seed germination strongly affects plant population growth and persistence, and it can be dramatically influenced by phylogeny, seed traits, and ecological factors. In this study, we examined the relationships among seed mass, seed shape, and germination percentage (GP), and assessed the extent to which phylogeny, seed traits (seed mass, shape, and color) and ecological factors (ecotype, life fo...

Seed size is a key determinant of evolutionary fitness, and is also one of the most important components of seed yield. In angiosperms, seed development begins with double fertilization, which leads to the formation of a diploid embryo and a triploid endosperm. The outermost layer of the seed is the seed coat, which differentiates from maternal integuments. Therefore, the size of a seed is dete...