Seed dormancy in plants can have a significant impact on their ecology. Recent work by Rojas-Villa and Quijano-Abril (2023) classified the seed dormancy class in 14 plant species from the Andean forests of Colombia by using germination trials and several microscopy techniques to describe seed anatomy and morphology. The authors conclude that Cecropia species have both physical and physiological dormancy (of which they call physiophysical dormancy) based on seed morphology and mean germination times of over 30 days. Here, we present seed permeability and germination data from neotropical pioneer tree species: Ochroma pyramidale, Cecropia longipes, and Cecropia insignis, as well as Cecropia peltata (present in Rojas-Villa and Quijano-Abril, 2023), to demonstrate that Cecropia species do not exhibit dormancy and also have high levels of seed permeability. We find that the mean germination time for all three Cecropia species in our study was less than 30 days. This suggests a need for reporting the conditions in which germination trials take place to allow for comparability among studies and using seed permeability tests to accurately identify the physical dormancy class of seeds. Further, we present data from the literature that suggests that dormancy is not a requirement for seed persistence in the seed bank.

植物的种子休眠会对其生态产生重大影响。Rojas-Villa 和 Quijano-Abril （2023） 最近的工作通过使用发芽试验和几种显微镜技术来描述种子解剖学和形态学，对哥伦比亚安第斯森林中 14 种植物的种子休眠类别进行了分类。作者得出结论，根据种子形态和超过 30 天的平均发芽时间，天蚤物种具有物理和生理休眠（他们称之为物理休眠）。在这里，我们展示了来自新热带先锋树种的种子渗透性和发芽数据：Ochroma pyramidale、Cecropia longipes 和 Cecropia insignis，以及 Cecropia peltata（存在于 Rojas-Villa 和 Quijano-Abril，2023 年），以证明 Cecropia 物种不表现出休眠状态，并且还具有高水平的种子渗透性。我们发现，我们研究中所有三种 Cecropia 物种的平均发芽时间都小于 30 天。这表明需要报告发芽试验的条件，以便研究之间的可比性，并使用种子渗透性测试来准确识别种子的物理休眠类别。此外，我们提供了来自文献的数据，这些数据表明休眠不是种子库中种子持久性的要求。