Scarification (botany)
Scarification in botany involves cutting the seed coat using abrasion, thermal stress, or chemicals to encourage germination.
[edit] In botany
Scarification is a natural process important for germination of many species' seeds. This process involves the breaching of the natural seed coating by mechanical, thermal or microbial methods. While this process occurs naturally in the wild, humans have developed techniques to emulate the natural processes for some seeds used in cultivation.[1] In the case of chaparral plant communities, many species' seeds require fire scarification to achieve germination; an exception to that phenomenon is Western poison oak, whose thick seed coatings provide a time delayed effect for germination, but do not require fire scarification.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Dennis R. Pittenger (2002) California Master Gardener Handbook, University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, ANR Publications, 702 pages ISBN 1879906546
- ^ C.Michael Hogan (2008) Western poison-oak: Toxicodendron diversilobum, GlobalTwitcher, ed. Nicklas Stromberg [1]
