dormancy

a state in which seeds and other structures (such as underground stems) reduce their metabolic activities to a minimum level during unfavourable conditions (e.g. low temperature, drought) so as to survive until conditions improve. In fungal spores dormancy can be EXOGENOUS, requiring an external stimulus (e.g. presence of nutrients) for germination; or ENDOGENOUS, where dormancy is controlled by an innate property of the spore and is unaffected by the ambient environment when in this state. See GERMINATION for events that occur when seed dormancy is broken.

Collins Dictionary of Biology, 3rd ed. © W. G. Hale, V. A. Saunders, J. P. Margham 2005

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References in periodicals archive

Germination of seeds at different days of afterripening (DAR) or nonafterripened caryopses and the characteristics shattering, awn, and black hull and red pericarp colors in weedy strain-derived B[C.sub.1][F.sub.1] populations.

Seed dormancy imposed by covering tissues interrelates to shattering and seed morphological characteristics in weedy rice

This Type 2 response (Vegis, 1964) of afterripening and germination relative to temperature is an adaptation to a cold unfavorable season (Baskin et al., 1993).

After selection of seeds, afterripening and stratification must occur.

Germination Ecology of a Federally Threatened Endemic Thistle, Cirsium pitcheri, of the Great Lakes

Dominance of seed dormancy varied with the period of afterripening and the measurement.

In contrast with seed morphological or yield traits, research on seed dormancy is more difficult because the phenotype is strongly affected by the type of dormancy, the dormancy measure, and the duration of seed afterripening.

Inheritance of seed dormancy in weedy rice. (Crop Breeding, Genetics & Cytology)

Our data indicated that switchgrass seeds within a population have varying degrees or depths of dormancy, or "offness", because they need varying stratification and/or afterripening times to be released from dormancy.

Afterripening influenced the reversion of stratified seeds, that is, the effect of afterripening and stratification was additive.

Stratification in Switchgrass Seeds Is Reversed and Hastened by Drying