The terms epigeous and hypogeous are not in a lot of recent introductory
botany texts. The contrast between epigeous and hypogeous germination is
easily made for monocots and dicots, but not many texts make it for
gymnosperms. Ginkgo is hypogeous, and pines are epigeous. Gymnosperms
tend to be neglected in texts. Gymnosperm seed nutritive tissue is also
often termed endosperm but is haploid because it originates from the
female gametophyte.
David Hershey
dh321 at excite.com
Ross Koning wrote (in part):
> This is a standard examination in my Botany (majors) class.
>> I haven't really tried to find an epigeous monocot that
> would serve as well as corn does. The one commonly-known
> epigeous monocot is onion...but its seeds are small and
> the seed coat is very dark (unlike in common popcorn).
> On the other hand, the onion cotyledon does emerge above
> the soil, elongate extensively, and turn green (as in
> epigeous bean). I'd love to hear about an easily-obtained,
> large epigeous monocot seed with a clear seed coat. Maybe
> someone out there knows of one?
>> ross
>> ________________________________________________________________
> Ross Koning | koning at ecsu.ctstateu.edu> Biology Department | http://koning.ecsu.ctstateu.edu/> Eastern CT State University | phone: 860-465-5327
> Willimantic, CT 06226 USA | fax: 860-465-4479
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