III. THE SITUATION OF FOSil{A,RVEST DESICCATION.SENSITIVE (RECALCTTRANT) SEEDS
A. What ls Seed Recalcitrance?
Recalcitrant seeds are shed at high water contents and are intolerant of dehydration and often also of chilling.
However, as evidence continues to accumulate, it has become clear that there are degrees of recalcitrant behavior, ranging from those seeds that will tolerate both relatively substantial water loss and low temperatures to those that rapidly lose viability when dehydrated even slightly and/or are exposed to chilling.
This is the basis of the continuum of recalcitrant seed types proposed by Fanant et al. (1988) and has led to the suggestion that the seed behavior should be considered in the context of the natural habitat of the individual plant species, in order better to understand the phenomenon of recalcitrance (Berjak et al., 1993b).