How long can a seed remain dormant?

Question

Pine seeds, Fir seeds, Spruce seeds.

Answer 1

Seed hibernation, also called seed dormancy, is the ability of a seed to remain in hibernation when there is a lack of things essential to their development (water, sunlight, nutrients, etc.) or in harsh conditions (extreme cold, extreme heat, hard ground, etc.). There is not a specific time limit in which a seed may hibernate; some seeds found in the arctic grew after an estimated 10,000 years. When conditions are right for the particular type of seed, they can come out of hibernation and grow.

Seeds display hibernation for very short periods of time every year. In autumn, seeds produced in summer may have a chance to grow while the soil is still warm, but instead do not grow until spring. The seeds have chemicals encoded into them that will not allow them to germinate until the soil warms up again, a sign of spring. This is called after ripening.

Seeds may also go into hibernation for other causes. Many pines have adapted to forest fires that destroy trees by creating pine cones that open in extreme heat (fire) and release seeds coated with a material that will break down only in extreme heat. The seeds hibernate until this happens.

Seeds of the Canna Lily, and other plants, have a hard coating that must be broken down by contact with rough rock, soil, etc. before they begin to grow. Until the shell is broken and water reaches the seed, the seed remains dormant.

When released, some seeds (especially those in a desert environment) must wait for rain before the seed is triggered out of hibernation and begins to grow.

There are many other causes of dormancy. It is an unclear phenomenon; the limits of seed hibernation are still unknown, and many triggers have yet to be discovered.

Answer 2

From Wikipedia (reference 1):

"The oldest seed datable by carbon 14 that has been germinated into a viable plant was a date palm seed about 2000 years old, recovered from excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada in Israel; this Judean date palm seed was germinated in 2005.

If the 2,000 year old Judean date palm seed longevity claim is confirmed by a report in a refereed scientific journal, then the second oldest viable seed would be the 1300 year old sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) from China [3]

There is a persistent myth that seeds from Egyptian tombs with ages of over 3000 years were viable [5]. The myth was reportedly started by scam artists selling "miracle seed" designed to capitalise on European Egyptomania of the 1800s. In 1897, the claims were tested by the British Museum's director of Egyptian antiquities, E. A. Wallis Budge. Budge provided genuine 3000-year-old tomb-seeds to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to plant under controlled conditions. The test resulted in none germinating."

The problem with a radiocarbon 14 date of seeds, of course, is that you cannot date the seed directly; if you find several seeds, you can destroy several to get a reasonably accurate C14 date, but the actual seed you try to sprout cannot be tested. If only one seed is available, then the surrounding material must be tested. There are certain problems with these techniques, as there is no guarantee of accuracy.

As for the lotus- I have a friend who pulled in a favor from the Nixon administration in the 1970's and had some of those Manchurian lakebed seeds flown out of the country in a diplomatic pouch. They do, indeed, germinate- although the radiocarbon dates on those are suspect as well. Some have turned out to be as young as 329 years (reference 2), and some may be substantially younger than that. Still- very old seeds.

There are many myths and much nonsense as to how long seeds stay viable. See Nabhan's book "Enduring Seeds" for more details.

Answer 3

Many pioneer species, those with seeds that may have to wait for long periods before germination (wait for rain in desert habitats or a gap in rainforest canopy) like acacias, can live for years in the soil and still be viable. Compared to many rainforest fruiting species which may only be viable for 6 weeks.

Answer 4

it depends on the type of seed. We need more info, all seeds have a different gestation period, some can be dormant for centuries.

Answer 5

i think of it does variety between flora yet i understand that when gazing 'the indoors maximum existence of flora' by ability of David Attenborough, in Japan they stumbled on a seed of a Magnolia-like tree and te seed became a protracted time previous. i won't be able to bear in ideas precisely how previous even nonetheless it became fairly fairly previous yet scientists grew the seed and it flowered.

Answer 6

Depends on conditions, could be several years.
Some seed were taken from a pyramid , and planted . Discovering a orchid that until then had never been seen.

Answer 7

the oldest they found was a male Magnolia tree scientist found a seed in a japanese silo. Wikipedia sucks and cannot be trusted.