Successful revegetation necessarily requires the establishment of a vegetation cover and one of the
challenges for this is the scarce knowledge about germination and seedling establishment of wild tree
species. Priming treatments (seed hydration during a specific time followed by seed dehydration) could
be an alternative germination pre-treatment to improve plant establishment. Natural priming (via seed
burial) promotes rapid and synchronous germination as well as the mobilisation of storage reserves;
consequently, it increases seedling vigour. These metabolic and physiological responses are similar to
those occurring as a result of the laboratory seed priming treatments (osmopriming and matrix priming)
applied successfully to agricultural species. In order to know if natural priming had a positive effect on
germination of tropical species we tested the effects of natural priming on imbibition kinetics, germination
parameters (mean germination time, lag time and germination rate and percentage) and reserve
mobilisation in the seeds of two tree species from a tropical deciduous forest in south-eastern Mexico:
Tecoma stans (L Juss. Ex Kunth) and Cordia megalantha (S.F Blake). The wood of both trees are useful for
furniture and T. stans is a pioneer tree that promotes soil retention in disturbed areas. We also compared
the effect of natural priming with that of laboratory matrix priming (both in soil). Matrix priming
improved germination of both studied species. Natural priming promoted the mobilisation of proteins
and increased the amount of free amino acids and of lipid degradation in T. stans but not in C. megalantha.
Our results suggest that the application of priming via the burial of seeds is an easy and inexpensive
technique that can improve seed germination and seedling establishment of tropical trees with potential
use in reforestation and restoration practices.