Over the past couple of weeks we have been clearing out the prop house and potting things on. There are always a heap of pots where there hasn’t been any germination and moss and liverwort normally take over the surface making any germination of small seeds virtually impossible. Luckily most smaller seeds get away fairly quickly when sown so if nothing is showing the pot is ditched.

Other larger seeds we have to make a call as to how long its worthwhile keeping. With plants such as Melliodendron, Perkinsiodendron, and in this image Rehderodendron it can often take several years to break down the hard seed endocarp allowing moisture to penetrate and bring the embryo to life. This emerging seedling in the attached photo has finally emerged after 6 1/2 years which i think is the longest time yet. Breaking the dormancy on these woody kernels can be interesting. Rotary mower run over Davidia has been known to work as has putting Melliodendron into a vice until cracking also seems to speed the job up…..