Ecophysiology of embryo development and seed germination of the European woodland herbaceous perennial Corydalis cava (L.) Schweigg. & Körte subsp. cava (Fumariaceae) ANDREA MONDONI,* SIMONE ORSENIGO† and GRAZIANO ROSSI† *Museum of Science, Via Calepina 14, 38122 Trento, and †Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pavia, Via Sant’Epifanio 14, 27100 Pavia, Italy Abstract In this study we examined the germination ecology with special reference to the tempera- ture requirements for embryo development and germination of Corydalis cava subsp. cava, under both outdoor and laboratory conditions. Corydalis cava is a spring flowering woodland tuberous geophyte widely distributed across Europe. Germination phenology, including embryo development and radicle and cotyledon emergence, was investigated in a population growing in northern Italy. Immediately after harvest, seeds of C. cava were sown both in the laboratory under simulated seasonal temperatures and naturally. Embryos, undifferentiated at the time of seed dispersal, grew during summer and autumn conditions, culminating in radicle emergence in winter, when temperatures fell to ca 5°C. Cotyledon emergence also occurred at ca 5°C, but first emergence was delayed until late winter and early spring. Laboratory experiments showed that high (summer) followed by medium (autumn) and low temperatures (winter) are needed for physiological dormancy loss, embryo development and germination respectively. Unlike seeds of C. cava that germinated in winter, in other Corydalis species radicle emergence occurred in autumn (C. flavula) or did not depend on a period of high summer temperature to break dormancy (C. solida). Our results suggest that subtle differences in dormancy and germination behavior between Corydalis species could be related to differences in their geographical distribution. Keywords: ecological adaptation, embryo growth, epicotyl morphophysiological dormancy, radicle and cotyledon emergence, seed germination. Received 9 January 2012; revision received 22 March 2012; accepted 19 April 2012 Introduction Corydalis cava (L.) Schweigg. & Körte subsp. cava (Fumari- aceae) is a herbaceous woodland perennial tuberous geo- phyte widely distributed in central and eastern parts of Europe, while it is less abundant towards the southwest (Tutin et al. 1964; Jalas & Suominen 1991). In Italy, it can be found mostly in deciduous woodlands (Pignatti 1982) ascribed to Carpino–Fagetea sylvaticae and less frequently in mesic meadows (Aeschimann et al. 2004) in lowland and mountain (northern Apennines and Alps) locations from 0 to 1700 m above sea level (a.s.l.). Lowland popu- lations have become rare (Pignatti 1982), due to an exten- sive replacement of natural woodland areas with agriculture fields; nevertheless, it grows also in semi- natural woods, dominated by Robinia pseudoacacia, along roadsides. The genus Corydalis contains about 470 species (Mingli et al. 2008), which are found mainly in the northern tem- perate zone. A considerable amount of information is available about their pharmacological properties, which have been shown to have a potential in the treatment of memory dysfunction in European and Asian folk medi- cine (Orhan et al. 2004; Houghton et al. 2006). In particular, tubers of C. cava subsp. cava (hereafter referred simply to Correspondence: Andrea Mondoni Email: andrea.mondoni@unipv.it Plant Species Biology (2013) 28, 215–223 doi: 10.1111/j.1442-1984.2012.00380.x © 2012 The Society for the Study of Species Biology