Responses of Germination to Light and to Far-Red Radiation—Can they be Predicted from Diaspores Size?

Abstract

This paper presents an update of a dataset of seed volumes previously released online and combines it with published data of the photoblastic response of germination of fruits or seeds (light or dark conditions), and of the effects of enhanced far-red radiation on germination. Some evidence was found to support that germination in larger diaspores might be indifferent to light or dark conditions. Similarly, germination in smaller diaspores might be inhibited by far-red radiation. However, the length, width, thickness, volume, shape, type of diaspore, or relative amplitude of volume is essentially useless to predict photoblastic responses or the effects of far-red radiation on germination of diaspores.