Name for seeds that germinate automatically please
Max Withers (Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:03:26 PST)

Although it does seem perverse to call seeds that germinate immediately
"recalcitrant", the logic is apparently in the sense of "objecting to
constraint" rather than "refractory" (from the OED's main definition).
The OED gives the same source for the botanical meaning of the word as
the article Mark cited:

A.3. /Bot./ Of seeds: viable for only a short time; /spec./ unable to
survive drying or freezing, making them difficult to preserve. Of a
plant: having seeds of this kind.

1973 E. H. Roberts in /Seed Sci. & Technol./ *1* 501 In these
seeds, which I shall refer to as recalcitrant, a decrease in moisture
content below some relatively high value---anything between 12 and 31%
moisture content, depending on the species---tends to decrease the
period of viability.

On 1/25/12 9:37 AM, Jane McGary wrote: