Causes of dormancy of Chionanthus virginica seed

Chionanthus virginica seed has the characteristic of dormancy and usually takes 18 months to germinate in nature. In order to understand the causes of seed dormancy, this paper carried out the observation of shape,determination of embryo viability and water permeability and seed parts inhibitor bioassay test. The results showed that,the viability of seed was high,and the inhibitory effect of each part of extracts on cabbage increased with concentration increasing, and the inhibition effect of endosperm was most obvious. Launched by the above results, C. virginica seed germination potential was high, and the main causes of seed dormancy may be that there were inhibitory substances in endosperm and embryo had dormancy. The lignified seed shell had a little effect on the absorption of oxygen and water the inhibitory substances in shell had no significant effect on the seed dormancy, so it was not the main reason for seed dormancy.