Only 14 of the 72 1-day post-burn soils (19%) contained germinating dicot seed, and none contained germinating monocot seed.
A total of 2101 seedlings (3503 seeds m-2) germinated from the 1-y post-burn pasture soils, 74 (4%) dicots and 2027 (96%) monocots.
One-year post-burn soil was dominated by monocots; only 3% of the seedlings were herbs; no vines, small trees/shrubs or trees germinated.
Evolution has, therefore, shaped monocot germination and endosperm mobilization into a highly regulated process.
This is the highly modified cotyledon of monocots that transmits hormones, produces digestive enzymes, and transports nutrients from the endosperm to the embryo.
Unidentified species (monocot and dicot classes comprising 13.5% of the emerged seeds) were excluded from the analyses.
Thus, in both monocot and dicot seeds, loss of dormancy was associated with a reduction in the threshold oxygen percentage.
Therefore, monocots are better able to deal with the typical water stressed habitat of the lowland canopy than dicots.
