Restoration is vital for the re-establishment of degraded communities, but success is often hindered by issues related to seed biology. We examined dormancy-alleviation and germination-promotion techniques for three common grassy woodland forbs required for diverse restoration. Scarification of the seed produced the highest germination for Dianella longifolia and Stackhousia monogyna, whereas germination of Dianella revoluta requires further examination. This information can advance methods to propagate these species from seed and contribute to greater understorey diversity in grassy woodland restoration.

Contributions by Australia’s crop wild relatives to plant breeding are dependent upon their availability for research via genebanks, yet the comprehensiveness of genebank collections for these species has not been assessed. We determined the state of representation of Australia’s major food crop wild relatives in ex situ conservation, identifying the gaps needing to be filled and outlining the key activities required to more fully safeguard their diversity and to increase their use.

Many aspects of seed biology are often overlooked in large-scale rehabilitation programs leading to the inefficient use of seed, and, consequently, limited plant establishment success. Through targeted research programs, a large body of empirical seed-use knowledge is now available to the mining and rehabilitation sector. In this paper we highlight how this knowledge has been used to improve direct seeding practices, through large-scale seed procurement, improved seed storage protocols, seed dormancy classification for over 100 species, effective pre-treatments to promote germination, and topsoil and growth media management research

Translocation of threatened species is challenging, especially when using direct seeding for in-situ establishment. Within Australia, ~14% of threatened species translocations use directly sown seeds with unpredictable and highly variable results. Using laboratory and field experiments, we focussed on understanding the relative importance of temperature, moisture, light, germination stimulants and sowing depth to develop a detailed seed ecology profile of the threatened shrub, Ricinocarpos brevis. Moisture was identified as the primary factor regulating germination and in situ emergence. With this knowledge, strategies to deal with this limitation can now be developed and implemented for future translocation success.