Cecropia (Cecropiaceae) is a Neotropical genus of pioneer plants. A review of bat/plant dispersal interactions revealed that 15 species of Cecropia are consumed by 32 species of bats. In French Guiana, bats were captured in primary and secondary forests, yielding 936 fecal samples with diaspores, among which 162 contained fruits of C. obtusa, C. palmata, and C. sciadophylla. A comparative morph...

Interest in seed propagation of drumstick tree (Moringa oleifera) has created a need for information about the water relationships of its seeds. Thus, we studied the imbibition and desiccation kinetics and adsorption/ desorption isotherms of drumstick tree seeds. Seeds absorbed water readily when imbibed at 23oC. After 17 h of exposure to an atmosphere of 100% relative humidity (RH), seed moist...

Seeds of carrot, groundnut, lettuce, oilseed rape and onion were stored hermetically in laminated aluminium foil packets in four environments (dry or ultra-dry moisture contents combined factorially with temperatures of 20°C or -20°C), replicated at several sites. After ten years’ hermetic storage, seed moisture content, equilibrium relative humidity, viability (assessed by ability to germinate...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Alpine plants are considered one of the groups of species most sensitive to the direct and indirect threats to ecosystems caused by land use and climate change. Collecting and banking seeds of plant species is recognized as an effective tool for providing propagating material to re-establish wild plant populations and for habitat repair. However, seeds from cold wet environm...

adverse environmental storage conditions including high temperature and relative humidity could affect seed quality. the objective of this investigation was to quantify relationship between temperatures and seed moisture on seed deterioration and determination viability constants in sorghum. four storage temperatures (5, 15, 25 and 35oc) and three moister content levels (6, 10 and 14%) were use...