Home	Germination of seeds

Seeds are very remarkable. Laying dormant (or asleep) inside the seed is an embryo plant. Packed up in the seed with the embryo is enough stored chemical energy to power the young seedling until it can capture its own energy from the sun by the process of photosynthesis.

A germinating sunflower seed

The timing of the germination (which is when the seed starts changing into a young plant) is important to the success of the young seedling. For instance, milkweed seeds that are produced in late summer and autumn are carried on the wind, away from the parent plant. They fall to earth in all sorts of environments. If the seed goes ahead and germinates immediately, the young milkweed plant will not be able to produce flowers and seeds before winter. Milkweed seeds actually don't germinate until they have experienced long periods of low temperatures. In the spring when the soil is moist and the soil temperature is warm enough a new generation of milkweed to begin. The seed has to somehow respond to signals in its environment in order to germinate at the right time of the year. Many environmental factors can affect seed germination. How much light there is, how long the days or nights are, water, gravity, temperature, genetics, oxygen availability, seed condition or age, - all these and other environmental conditions can affect seed germination.

In order to germinate and break dormancy a seed has to absorb quite a bit of water. In nature seeds absorb this water from the soil. As the seed absorbs water, it begins to put up a shoot which appears above the ground, and at the same time, put down roots which will continue to feed it as it grows. The seed at the right is an oat seed, and you can see both the shoot growing upwards, and the roots beginning to grow down into the soil.