Seed dormancy in wild flowers.

Abstract

This paper aims to: (i) to distinguish between dormant, conditionally dormant and non-dormant seeds; (ii) describe the 5 classes of seed dormancy and present a dichotomous key for distinguishing them; (iii) discuss the environmental conditions (including temperature) required to break the various classes and levels of dormancy; and (iv) explain how the 'move-along experiment' (where seeds are moved through a simulated yearly sequence of temperatures) can be used to discover the dormancy-breaking requirements of water-permeable seeds.