You may want to know….

also, see update from Feb.8

How the moist stored seeds of C. nobilis are looking at the moment. This is the first time I have ‘excess’ seeds and it is interesting to see how they ‘behave’.

The growth of the embryos has resulted in the expansion of the endosperm and splitting of the seed coat. This is not happening in many species and has been reported as well in Corydalis ambigua; I also noted it in Hydrastis canadensis last year (see below).

Corydalis nobilis seeds with enlarged endosperms (January – seeds in moist storage)

Hydrastis

Hydrastis canadensis seeds with split seed coats by early January (germination in April)

These type of seeds, which have an undeveloped embryo when ripen, require warm stratification before embryo growth can occur in late autumn. The root emergence, followed shortly by the cotyledons, will happen then in early spring (somewhere in mid-March-April).

~~If I’m not wrong, that’s when I expect to see the ‘little lords’~~ showing ~~up!~~

UPDATE – Feb.8

I was wrong! – by second week of February I spotted the first radicles!

Corydalis nobilis – germination start

It continues to be very gloomy here, so a bright and sunny picture will do us all good :) And, I repeat again because not many are mentioning; besides being very hardy and beautiful, the lord of the Corydalis is also fragrant!