The dark line is the endosperm. Seeds with the endosperm are your best hope for germination. But some of the other seeds may also germinate. Toss the chaff back in the garden and some will germinate. Rimmer > On Oct 28, 2018, at 7:59 PM, stephen willson <stevew1llson@outlook.com> iwrote: > > [Image] > > I’ve been candling Lilium mackliniae seeds to send to the seed exchange and I have a question regarding seed viability (not wanting to send Albert a number of duds). The seeds fall into three types - chaff, with no embryo being easily identified. Then there are seeds with a clear embryo that has a central dark line (which I take to be some form of embryonic shoot or root), and then a group of seeds with an embryo but without this central ‘root’. I have attempted to show all three types in the attached photo. > > My question is whether this last group (the one minus the ‘root’) is equally viable as the seeds showing the possibility better-developed embryo with the ‘proto-root’. Should I submit both embryo-showing seeds to the exchange? I also realize that the ‘chaff’ may also contain seeds with difficult to see embryos, so I will pot these up separately. > > It’s my first attempt at serious candling, so any advice would be welcome! > > Thanks, > > Steve Willson > Zone 8b, northwest Washington State > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…