Drought stress and high temperatures during soybean/Glycine max (L.) Merr./
seed fill can result in the appearance of wrinkled and greenish seeds. Drou
ght susceptible genotypes can produce a high percentage of wrinkled and gre
enish seeds. Eight drought susceptible genotypes and three as control were
planted in a two-year field trial. Susceptible genotypes were exposed to dr
ought stress, the control variant was irrigated. Harvested seed was classif
ied into three categories: 1. Seed of normal appearance, 2. Wrinkled seed a
nd 3. Greenish seed. Occurence of wrinkled and greenish seeds was higher in
the first, more stressful year. Wrinkled seed had significantly higher ger
mination (46.1%) than greenish (24.7%). Seed vigour (cold rest and tetrazol
ium test) showed lower values than germination test results. Wrinkled seed
in standard germination and cold test conditions had enough rime and moistu
re to complete the imbibition process, recover shape and retain some germin
ation Greenish seed showed very low values in both vigour tests (5.0% and 5
.9% vigorous seedlings). Germination, cold test and tetrazolium rest values
for seed categories (harvested, normal, wrinkled and greenish seeds) were
highly and significantly correlated. Correlations were lower when genotypes
were the object of observation.