Astragalus is the largest genus of seed plants with 3000 or more species that occurs naturally on several continents. The genus has some use as a forage and medicine and in industry, and many of the species are rare endemics threatened with extinction. The seeds are reported to be dormant at maturity, and various treatments have been used in an attempt to germinate them. Our primary aim was to determine via a meta-analysis the most effective way(s) to break dormancy in seeds of this species-rich genus. Mechanical and chemical (conc. sulphuric acid) scarification were by far the best of 12 treatments for breaking seed dormancy of the 40 species included in our meta-analysis, whereas prechilling, gibberellin and smoke were ineffective. These results along with those of imbibition tests confirm that seeds of the examined Astragalus species have physical dormancy (PY). Further, PY in these 40 species and (its documented occurrence) in 118 species that could not be included in our meta-analysis transcends climatic and geographic boundaries, edaphic conditions, life cycle/life form types and infrageneric phylogeny. Thus, it seems likely that most species of Astragalus have PY. However, in addition to PY, physiological dormancy (PD), that is, combinational dormancy (PY + PD), has been reported in a few species of Astragalus. This study should be useful to both basic and applied scientists who want to germinate seeds of Astragalus.

中文翻译：

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用于打破巨型黄芪（豆科）种子休眠的处理效果的荟萃分析

黄芪是种子植物中最大的一个属，有 3000 种或更多种，在几个大陆上自然生长。该属有一些用作饲料、医药和工业用途，许多物种是濒临灭绝的稀有地方性物种。据报道，这些种子在成熟时处于休眠状态，并且已经使用了各种处理方法来尝试使它们发芽。我们的主要目的是确定通过一项荟萃分析是打破这一物种丰富属种子休眠的最有效方法。迄今为止，机械和化学（浓硫酸）划痕是打破我们荟萃分析中包括的 40 种物种的种子休眠的 12 种处理方法中最好的，而预冷、赤霉素和烟雾是无效的。这些结果与自吸试验的结果一起证实了被检查的种子黄芪物种具有物理休眠（PY）。此外，在我们的荟萃分析中无法包括的这 40 个物种和 118 个物种（其记录的发生）中的 PY 超越了气候和地理边界、土壤条件、生命周期/生命形式类型和亚属系统发育。因此，似乎大多数物种黄芪有PY。然而，除 PY 外，生理休眠（PD），即组合休眠（PY + PD），已在少数物种中报道过。黄芪. 这项研究应该对想要发芽种子的基础科学家和应用科学家都有用。黄芪.