One might see the seed as an intermediate form that is the mechanism a plant reproduces itself. One of the classical definitions in the elements of life is the ability to reproduce. A seed has a full complement of DNA, and all the cellular machinery, plus an initial source of energy to get going and to fulfil its destiny as the progeny of a plant (or two). As the seed formed it was alive and doing all the metabolic things living things do.
It is most certainly alive once it germinates. It was certainly alive before becoming dormant. It wasn’t a given that it would ever become dormant.
So one is either creating a living organism from something that is deemed to have died, which is basically some form of resurrection/necromancy, or one accepts that dormancy isn’t death. On the margins, the trite definitions become blurred. The dormant seed will likely grow to become a mature plant and itself create seeds. That plant certainly meets the requirements for life. So, in the time it was dormant, was it dead? Seems very hard to say so.
Is a frozen tulip bulb dead? It will thaw and flower come spring. Moreover, if it doesn’t get frozen, it won’t flower.
Reminds me of the adage about people who are near frozen. No heartbeat, no active signs. But ER doctors will expound “they are not dead until they are warm and dead.” People revive from such conditions.
For one thing, it will change. It will eventually die.
The likely life span of any seed depends on the species and both the moisture and temperature of storage conditions. And germination rates drop by percentages; some individual seeds in any lot of the same seed that’s been in the same conditions will die sooner than others. But there are changes going on; they’re just not visible to the human eye.
Thanks to you and others for the well-phrased explanations. The book I referred to upthread discussed changing medical and legal attitudes to death: no heartbeat; no brain activity…
Also, even if someone is successfully revived, are they dead during the period before they are revived?
This reminds me of a scene I saw in a show (or movie?) when I was young. Western - the bad guy tied someone to a chair and to keep them quiet, filled their mouth with coeds and put a gag over their mouth. By the time they were saved, the corn had swelled to almost busting out.
For most seeds, the whole seed is not alive - its a store of food for the part that is alive - the germ or embryo, which may only be a few cells.
In some cases, that embyro is identifiably alive - you could place the seeds in a sealed container and measure the products of their respiration. Typically, this type of seed might have quite short viability.
In other cases, the metabolism in the embryonic cells has slowed down to a crawl that might be difficult to detect, and it’s possible that it actually ceases, but in a poised state.
If you think about what metabolism is, this makes more sense. It’s a collection of ongoing, cascading chemical reactions. Chemical reactions are discrete, not continuous - they occur between discrete molecules, so if you slow the clock right down, there is an interval between one step in a metabolic chain and the next step, during which time nothing happens - so in a sense, a metabolic pathway is continually stopping and starting.
Plants have invented a way of slowing down that metabolic clock so that the period between steps is arbitrary.
I’ve been growing sweetcorn for years, and though I’ve never seen a kernel germinate after being boiled or steamed, I have witnessed germination on a raw cob that’s been well munched on. And I mean well munched on - I put a lot of effort into growing it, and it’s too delicious to waste. I’ve got great pics of this, but alas SDMB won’t let me embed them…
I grow about 100 sweetcorn plants a year on a little veg patch, and only grow F1 hybrid supersweet varieties (mixing varieties doesn’t generally work well as the cross-pollination can ruin the corn by making it too tough or too starchy). It’s so tender and sweet that’s it’s a joy to eat raw, something that I definitely wouldn’t do with standard varieties or maize. One downside to this is that the local fox population absolutely loves it, and I have to fence in the entire crop to stop them eating it all, which did indeed happen in 2022 when they dug under the fence, stomped down the anti-tunnelling weed blanket into the depression they’d created before crawling over the top of it, and ate the lot.
In other sweetcorn news, thanks to increasingly unstable weather patterns, I am seeing an increase in plants going hermaphrodite. This generally happens when the plant is stressed, and usually I find it’s the male flowers growing female bits. I’ve got a great pic of this too… will post when I sort out some kinda pic file hosting.
The article I linked to in post #15 says that precocious germination’s more likely to occur in ears that have been damaged by, among other things, being chewed on. So that part fits. Maybe the ear reacts to damage by, in effect, “thinking” ‘must put all resources available in this cob into maturing remaining seed right now, before somebody eats that too!’
Thanks thorny_locust, that’s interesting! I do like the idea of precocious germination, and wish to subscribe to your newsletter. I’ve seen it in pea pods (which, sadly, I am rubbish at growing), but never in sweetcorn that’s still on the plant, and mine do get nibbled at sometimes, generally by pigeons at first, then the woodlice move in. I believe you when you say it happens though, and I’ll be looking out for that in the future.
I’ve bitten the bullet and got an imgur account, so here’s some pics. This one is of some raw cobs that I thought I’d eaten to the core, but there must have been enough viable seedy goodness left in many of the kernels to start sprouting:
This is in a plastic compost bin with a lid, so it would have been nice and warm in there. The cob on the right has unfertilised (and un-nibbled) kernels on its top end, which is characteristic of an end-of-season cob in a small planting as there’s not enough pollen blowing around to fertilise the last few developing kernels.
Here’s a plant where the male flowers have gone a bit hermaphrodite after being stressed during a Summer heatwave:
I’ve eaten kernels from a male flower that’s turned female in places, and they taste just fine.
Well, that article says it happens, and it looks reasonably well sourced to me from what I can see of it. And you’ve just sent me a picture of it happening. I haven’t seen it myself. I don’t usually grow corn, though I grow a lot of other things.
