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Abstract

Germination in the family Orchidaceae, under laboratory conditions, is a complex process due to the extraordinary requirements of orchid seeds, most important of which is the necessity of a seed/seedling/plant – fungus symbiosis in the field. Thus, orchids are generally hard to germinate, in asymbiotic culture; however, several species can germinate in distilled water, without any symbionts or nutrient media. Based on an initial set of observations, we investigated the hypothesis of an association between the dimensions of orchid seeds and their germination behaviour for 200 orchid species.