Embryo Dormancy in Seeds of Acer platanoides

On dispersal the seed of Acer platanoides contained a dormant embryo, from which dormancy could be removed by chilling but not by hormone application. Dormany was deep in the embryonic axis, particularly in the radicle, but less so in the cotyledons. Under the storage conditions employed the dormancy pattern was modified so that during the subsequent incubation at 20°C, cotyledon expansion of isolated embryos from stored fruits was more rapid than that of isolated embryos from newly dispersed fruits. In addition, the dormancy of isolated embryos from fruits stored for several weeks could be broken by incubation in kinetin. It was concluded that embryo dormany in this seed can be divided into two phases, an initial phase when the embryo responds to chilling but not to cytokinins, and a later phase when cytokinins also become effective. The relationship between this transition and the apparent gradual reduction in the depth of embryo dormancy during storage is also discussed. The chilling period necessary for dormancy breaking was reduced by kinetin and to a lesser extent by gibberellin, indicating a close relationship between the concentrations of these hormones and the chilling requirement.