Figure 2.

Germination and dormancy as related to the seed maturation gradient within L. papillosum infructescences. A to C, Experimental separation of type I (young) and type III (old) infructescences into FOs and FO-specific analysis of their germination time courses. Note that lack of germination in bottom-part FOs (low numbers) is due to primary dormancy, whereas lack of germination in top-part FOs (high numbers) is due to immaturity of seeds. Exemplary seeds from type III infructescence incubated on germination plates (at day 39) and germination kinetics are shown in C. D and E, Final germination frequency gradients indicative for primary dormancy induction of seeds from FOs of type I (young), type II (intermediate), and type III (old) infructescences. Mean values ± se of four type I, six type II, and four type III infructescences from different plants are shown. Final germination percentages were taken from FO (each containing eight fruits and thereby 16 seeds) time-course analyses at 50 d.