Morphological and physiological characteristics of seeds and their capacity to germinate and survive

The past few years have seen a marked increase in the number of papers on seed science that are received for publication in Annals of Botany, from under ten per year to over 40, resulting in 44 papers on seeds published in the last two years. The topics range from aspects of ecology, through physiology to molecular biology. The topic of dormancy has received considerable attention, including papers that have examined the morphological features that regulate dormancy and germination, and the influence of dormancy on survival in a range of environments. The first four of the papers in this Highlight fall into this category