Seeds, Second Edition

Each chapter in this book begins with a brief summary of its purpose(s); thus, in keeping with this format, one objective of Chapter 1 is to explain the philosophy for the whole book. The original concept for this book was to synthesize available information related to seed germination ecology, including evolutionary aspects. However, as the mass of information we were collecting on seed dormancy and germination continued to increase, it became clear that we should use this database to (1) determine if plants with specialized life cycle and/or habitats were unique with regard to seed dormancy and germination characteristics, (2) obtain an understanding of the world biogeography of whole-seed dormancy and (3) formulate hypotheses concerning the origin and evolutionary relationships of the various kinds of dormancy in seeds. Thus, this book attempts to cover the present state of knowledge of the ecology, biogeography and evolution of seed dormancy and germination. Other objectives of this introductory chapter are to explain what we mean by seed germination ecology, provide an overview of the general kinds of information needed to understand the seed germination ecology of a species and comment on the values of such studies. Also, attention will be given to reasons why this book on seed germination is needed, and how it differs from previous ones written on the subject.