Germination Factors

1500 Words3 Pages

ABSTRACT

Factors affecting germination are numerous and well studied (soil nutrient composition, water availability, temperature, etc). Others, such as seed size and its effects on the duration of seed germination have been largely unstudied. In this study, seeds from the plants P. vulgaris and L. culinaris were studied to observe any differences in the duration of germination, with P. vulgaris being the larger seed species. The data revealed that seeds from the L. culinaris took a shorter period of time to reach germination than did seeds from P vulgaris. It appears that seed size is the cause of the differences between the bean species but further studies are necessary to rule out other causes that could have caused this difference, mainly genetic mutation or variation.

INTRODUCTION

Plants are an important component of life on earth. They contribute to the production of oxygen which is essential to the survival of most animals. They also make up much of the biomass of earth and are consumed as a major food source by various organisms. Humans have optimized their survival through their knowledge of agriculture. They did so my manipulation of natural selection to optimize food production. Some examples include the bean, maize and potato. Since most had to be grown from seeds, knowledge of them was beneficial in the domestication of plant species (Hayden, 1992).

Most plants begin their lives as seeds. These seeds contain the embryos of a future plant and are the products of sexual reproduction in plants. Seeds also contain nutrients needed by the embryo emerge from the seed and begin forming a new plant. This process is known as germination. Germination is triggered when a seed is placed in conditions optimal for its developme...

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...d to seed size in Silverton’s study. He did not discuss any of the causes that might have led to its positive correlation (Silverton, 1981; Venable, 1992 ).

Limitations

Multiple sources of error could have taken place during the courses of the experiment. Errors in determining when germination had taken place since the inside of the seed cannot be observed, actual time of germination cannot be recorded. The external observance of germination may have been later than actual germination time because of this. Errors in determining when the germinated seed had produced photosynthetic pigments. There is no way of knowing that change in color of the seed is actual production of photosynthetic pigments and not other metabolic processes within the seed. Measurement of time may have been too broad and not be accurate enough to discern differences in germination times.

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