Fridays Seeds – or is a fruit? part II Morina

,

It’s Friday again so I continue the discussion (or better said monologue) about fruits versus seeds with Morina longifolia, commonly called Himalayan whorlflower.
If someone missed the Triosteum, see here.

What we call ‘seeds’ for Morina longifolia are also fruits (achenes). Morina is considered a warm germinator with the note that sometimes the hard teguments remain attached to the seedlings and are difficult to remove.

After being soaked in water for a few days, Morina achenes became soft and were easy to cut open. Actually, the tegument is quite thin compared to that of Triosteum, which is why I botched both seeds when trying to remove them (I couldn’t afford more fruits to test on).

But, we can have a look at the fully developed embryo I managed to extract from the second seed; notice the very large cotyledons.

Conclusion: soaking the seeds in water a few days (5-6), followed by sowing at room temperature should suffice for Morina. Before, I recommended keeping the seeds in a moist towel in the fridge for a couple of weeks, which is OK as well, but not really  necessary.
 

 

4 replies
  1. sueturner31
    sueturner31 says:

    Excellent..I grow Morina, have several plants around the garden. I save seed and give it away, your information is invaluable to me as I can pass on your knowledge. Thanks Sue

  2. diversifolius
    diversifolius says:

    Thanks Sue, it was known to be a warm germinator, the question was about the hardness of the tegument. There are other cases when the newly germinated seedling remain encased in the seed/fruit tegument and is very hard to ‘release’ them without harm.

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Feel free to express your opinion!