THE EIGHTY-YEAR PERIOD FOR DR. BEAL'S SEED VIABILITY EXPERIMENT

Darlington , H. T., and G. P. Steinbauer . (Michigan State U., East Lansing.) The eighty-year period for Dr. Beal's seed viability experiment. Amer. Jour. Bot. 48 (4): 321–325. 1961.—Seeds of 20 species of plants were buried 80 years ago on the Michigan State University campus. Bottles have been dug up periodically in the intervening years and the seeds tested for viability. A bottle representing the 80-year period of burial was dug up this spring and the contents distributed uniformly on the surface of sterilized soil in the greenhouse. Of the 20 species whose seeds were buried in 1879, only 3 have survivors as viable seeds. These are the same 3 that had survived the 70-year burial period, namely: curled dock, Rumex crispus; evening primrose, Oenothera biennis; and moth mullein, Verbascum blattaria. The low percentage survival of curled dock (2%) indicates that the longevity of the buried seeds of this species is nearing the end. The situation is more favorable for evening primrose, with 10% survival. The third, moth mullein, has about as many survivors as 10 years ago, a remarkably high figure of 70% viability. Since there has been no significant drop in viability of the buried seeds over the last 30 years, it seems highly probable that longevity of buried seeds of this species may extend over a century. A brief summary is given of the current status of the behavior of buried seeds, based on this and other buried seed experiments.