Re: planting TB seeds
- To: i*@rt66.com
- Subject: Re: planting TB seeds
- From: b*@tiger.hsc.edu (Bill Shear)
- Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 10:13:01 -0500
My experience has been that the size and shape of seeds depends on many
factors, but rarely allows much of a prediction on what the resulting plant
will be like. In general though, smaller seeds are less likely to
germinate. Some do not contain embryos. Some have defective or
insufficient endosperm (the stored food that allows the embryo to develop).
Embryos can be "rescued" from small seeds and grown to maturity in test
tubes. Embryo culture used to be a big topic in iris discussions but I see
little about it now.
Aside from defective seeds, the size of seeds is probably governed most by
how many are in the pod. If you have "just the right number" of seeds, all
will be quite regular and uniform. If there are only a few, then some may
be quite large. If there are too many, then some will be aborted or
semi-aborted.
Best wishes, Bill
___________________
William A. Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943 USA
phone (804) 223-6172
FAX (804) 223-6374
