Germination, temperature and water potential in Jatropha

Jatropha curcas is a drought-resistant tree whose seeds are a good source of oil that can be used for producing biodiesel. Windauer et al. examine germination at different temperatures and water potentials and find that there is an extremely narrow thermal range within which dormancy problems are not encountered and that the seeds have a high sensitivity to water shortage. The use of a hydrotime analysis allows temperature effects on dormancy expression to be discriminated from those on dormancy induction.