Scatter-hoarding rodents are effective dispersal agents for many plant species. Several studies have shown that rodents repeatedly re-cache seeds. The re-caching process often has a significant impact on final seedling establishment, but the factors determining its occurrence are poorly understood. In this study, we followed the fate of 3564 artificial seeds that varied in size, nutrient conten...

Effects of chemical delinting on the level of occurrence and development of Colletotrichum gossypii associated with cotton seeds The present work was conducted in two phases. The first phase evaluated how the lenght of time of chemical delinting, 1:30 and 4:30 min, effected the level of infection by Colletotrichum gossypii on artificially inoculated cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) seeds. Non-delint...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Pathogen-seed interactions may involve a race for seed resources, so that seeds that germinate more quickly, mobilizing reserves, will be more likely to escape seed death than slow-germinating seeds. This race-for-survival hypothesis was tested for the North American seed pathogen Pyrenophora semeniperda on seeds of the annual grass Bromus tectorum, an invasive plant in Nort...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Many Orchidaceous species are threatened globally by development and over-collection from their natural habitats for horticultural purposes. Artificial propagation from seeds is difficult in most terrestrial orchids native to temperate regions. Seed production is another limiting factor in the artificial propagation for these species because of the lessened probability of po...

The Florida harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex badius, is one of many ant species and genera that stores large numbers of seeds in damp, underground chambers for later consumption. A comparison of the sizes of seeds recovered from storage chambers with those of seed husks discarded following consumption revealed that the used seeds are far smaller than stored seeds. This difference in use-rate was con...

Immature seeds can acquire the traits of desiccation tolerance and germination after precocious maturation. This process is associated with the accumulation of non-reducing sugars and late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins. LEA proteins were first identified from late developmental seeds and were proposed to be associated with desiccation tolerance. In the present study, we examined whether...

In this study, we analyzed heterosis, amylase enzyme gene expression, and the physiological quality of maize seeds with different genotypes and sizes, which were subjected to aging and not subjected to aging. We used seeds from 2 maize lines that differed with regard to physiological quality, the hybrid, and the reciprocal hybrid; they were classified into 2 sizes and were subjected to aging an...

Seed aging is a process that results in a delayed germination, a decreased germination percentage, and finally a total loss of seed viability. However, the mechanism of seed aging is poorly understood. In the present study, Yliangyou 2 hybrid rice (Oryza sativa L.) seeds were artificially aged at 100% relative humidity and 40°C, and the effect of artificial aging on germination, germination tim...

Temperature and relative humidity in combination cause rapid decline in seed quality during storage. To maintain the seed quality in storage a number of physical and chemical treatments are used. Magnetic field treatment is one such physical treatment practiced to improve the seed quality. An experiment was conducted to investigate the efficacy of this treatment to improve the storability of se...

Leymus chinensis is a dominant grass in the Songnen grassland of Northern China. The lower germination caused by the presence of lemmas has proved to be an obstacle for the use of the seeds of this plant by humans. However, it is still unknown if the lemmas have other ecological roles such as resisting drought and saline conditions. Three experiments were designed to investigate the ecological ...