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| Alani (Melicope knudsenii) |
June 14, 2004
On 25 August 2003, we received 250 seeds collected on 1 August. We sent 100 to the USDA seed lab in Ft. Collins, Colorado for storage research. We sent another 100 to the Unversity of Kentucky Dept. of Biology for dormance and germination research. If you have not received any reports from them directly, we can contact them. Their contact information is: USDA National Center for Genetic Resource Preservation: Christina Walters,
We tried to germinate 5 each of the fresh seeds in a growth chamber simulating 1600′ elev. and natural day/night light cycles. We first sanded them, then sowed them in Petri dishes lined with 1% water agar or paper wetted with water, or 0.2% potassium nitrate, or 400 ppm gibberellic acid. None germinated. We tried again to sow scarified seeds on agar after 1-2 year of very dry room temperature storage and frozen storage, but, again, nothing germinated. We still have 12 remaining in storage. We do not expect to do more storage experiments until more reliable germination methods are available.
February 12, 2004
Our alani seeds are still sitting in the petri dishes doing very little. Carol Baskin at UKY sent me a report that some of hers were showing signs of activity a while back. I assume that she sent you the same report, so I did not forward it to you. I shall be at the meeting on Tuesday, so I can see Jill there.