The objective of this work was to study some aspects related to the dormancy of Commelina benghalensis seeds. Two experiments were conducted under laboratory conditions. ln 1989 freshly harvested aerial and underground seeds from Paranavaí, PR, and aerial seeds from Jaboticabal, SP, were divided by their weight into large and small. Except for a control the seeds were subjected to dormancy breaking treatments: mechanical scarification with abrasive paper; chemical action with sulphuric acid; hot water; dry heating. ln 1990 a further experiment, without dormancy breaking treatment, was conducted with seeds from the same lot, after one year in cold storage at 10o C. The results over a 30-day period were: I) sulphuric acid induced the highest germination (P.G.) and the highest speed of germination index (S.G.I.) in all kinds of seeds studied; 2) the P.G. and the S.G.I. of the seeds seem to increase during storage; 3) the larger seeds showed higher P.G. and S.G.I. than the smaller ones; 4) the seeds from Paranavaí showed a tendency of higher values of P.G. and S.G.I. than those from Jaboticabal.
Biology; seed dormancy; speed of germination index; scarification