BACKGROUND AND AIMS The wild progenitors of the Near Eastern legumes have low germination rates mediated by hardseededness. Hence it was argued that cultivation of these wild legumes would probably result in no yield gain. Based on the meagre natural yield of wild lentil and its poor germination, it was suggested that wild Near Eastern grain legumes were unlikely to have been adopted for cultiv...

Few studies have been conducted in annual and perennial forage legumes to investigate the development of hardseededness and the subsequent pattern of seed softening in temperate and subtropical regions of South America. Experiments were conducted during 2007 and 2008 in central Uruguay to follow the pattern of seed softening in 35 annual and perennial forage legumes, including three native spec...

In this study, seeds of Lebeckia ambigua E. Mey., a South African perennial legume, displayed high level physical dormancy, commonly termed ‘hardseededness’. Australian agricultural systems, trait is exploited in annual legumes to ensure their regeneration after cropping phase. While hardseededness has been studied extensively, there have fewer studies feature legumes. Here, for the first time,...

Timing of seed germination is one of the key steps in plant life cycles. It determines the beginning of plant growth in natural or agricultural ecosystems. In the wild, many seeds exhibit dormancy and will only germinate after exposure to certain environmental conditions. In contrast, crop seeds germinate as soon as they are imbibed usually at planting time. These domestication-triggered change...

medicago spp. is the most important forage crop in many regions of the world.annual medics have distinct advantages over perennial medicago. these species have fastergrowth rate in cultivation year, higher crude protein percentage, tolerance to pests and morevigorous seedlings. morphological and physical aspects of pod and seeds of annual medicsplay a major role in the tolerance of the plants t...