Article

Germination of seeds from 179 populations belonging to 10 taxa of Lotus L. sect. Lotus collected in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France is studied. Seeds of different ages were sown to check where germination percentage and germination dynamics could change with age. Results of this paper indicate that time elapsed by seeds to start germination is rather short. Values of t 50 (time elapsed to complete 50 % germination of the total germinated seeds) shown a general decrease with age both in annual and perennial taxa, more pronounced in the former than in the later. Results demonstrate that there are clear differences in germination percentages and germination dynamics between annual and perennial taxa. Some hypotheses are given to explain these differences.