Mississippi
4-H
SEED IDENTIFICATION
Study Guide
Compiled by
Dr. Dennis Reginelli
Area Extension Agent
Agronomic Crops
Presentation Prepared
by
Kathy Nash
MSU-ES Support Services
AV Reference Room Manager/Information & Graphics Technician
Slide 4
When we think of Corn seed,
we usually think of….
Slide 6
Sweet Corn
Popcorn
Corn seed are usually ……
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Cottonseed, as they come
from the gin, have a considerable amount of lint and linters on the seed.
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Rice is easy to
recognize. Color will vary. There are different grain shapes, but the overall
appearance is always the same. Rice is
usually treated when processed.
Red rice may or may not have
awns attached. Red rice is considered a
weed.
If the awns are not attached
to red rice, they are easily taken for regular or field grown rice.
Slide 18
Wheat seed may vary in size
and be red or white colored. The
general appearance of the seed is the same.
The “brush” on the end and
the
“deep groove” are both distinguishing characteristics.
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Rye is usually dark,
although color will vary and be more slender than wheat. These seeds are pointed. Wheat, oats and rye may or may not be
treated.
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Sorghum is oval-shaped. Seed size is variable and color can vary
from black to brown to orange to white and can be treated.
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Soybeans are variable in
size. The seed coat is usually yellow,
but it can be brown or black …
Hilum color (the scar where
the bean was attached to the plant) varies from clear to buff to brown to black. This is one way to identify a mixture of
varieties.
Slide 30
Crimson clover seed are fairly
large compared to other clovers. The
color is usually light tan. These seeds
may darken as they age. Crimson clover
is somewhat oval.
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Red clover is mitten-shaped. Seed of several different colors from yellow
to brown to purple are present in the same sample.
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Subterranean or subclover
seed are large for clover seed, round and purple-black.
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Arrowleaf clover is heart-shaped.
The seed coat is not
as smooth as the other clovers. Color
varies from red to burnt orange to black.
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White clover seed are tiny. They are heart-shaped but much smaller than
arrowleaf clover. Color ranges from yellow
to dark brown.
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Alfalfa is a kidney-shaped
seed. Color varies from light yellow to
brown.
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It is hard to distinguish
between korean and kobe lespedeza. Kobe
seed is a little lighter brown than korean and are usually slightly larger.
Slide 44
Korean lespedeza has little
or no hairs on the pod. The veins in
the pod are more prominent.
If hulled, Korean lespedeza
seed are light brown to green and may or may not be mottled.
Slide 47
Sericea lespedeza seed is
usually hulled and light brown to green and
flecked with purple.
Slide 49
Wild winter peas are rounded
and the seed coat looks rough. Seed are
gray to black in color.
Slide 51
Hairy vetch varies in size. Seed are round. The seed coat is smooth and dull black.
There are many other vetches. Seed size varies. Most have a red brown to green brown speckled or mottled seed
coat.
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Pensacola bahiagrass are light
or straw-green, slightly longer than they are wide, smooth and flow freely.
Slide 56
Dallasgrass is about the
same size and color as Pensacola bahiagrass.
Seed are hairy and do not flow as freely as bahiagrass.
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Argentine bahiagrass is larger
and more wrinkled than Pensacola bahiagrass, and about the same color.
Slide 60
Ryegrass has an awn or remains
of an awn. The awn end tapers. The other end of the seed is wide, rounded
and flared.
Slide 62
Fescue resembles ryegrass
but does not have an awn. The lower end
is more tapered than ryegrass.
Slide 64
Common bermudagrass is the smallest
weed seed you will learn to identify.
When it is hulled, the color is brown; when unhulled, a light tan.
Slide 66
Pearl millet is so named
because this seed resembles a pearl.
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Brown top millet is usually in
the hull and light brown.
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Johnsongrass is both a forage
and a weed. Color varies, but most are brown
to light black and smooth and shiny.
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Sudan grass is a forage crop. The seed resemble Johnsongrass but are
usually larger and lighter in color and smooth.
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Some weed seeds can be
easily removed. Others are difficult or
impossible to remove in processing. You
need to learn to identify weed seed because there may be some in the crop seed
you buy.
Slide 77
No one should have a problem
identifying cocklebur.
Sometimes when cockleburs
are in cottonseed, the spines have been cut off and they may have some seed
treatment on them.
Slide 80
Dock is sometimes found in
clover seed. The seeds are light to dark
brown and triangular.
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Crotalaria is a problem in
soybeans. The seeds are flat,
kidney-shaped and shiny black.
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Cheat is a problem in weed
seed, oat and grass seed such as fescue and ryegrass.
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Wild garlic produces bublets
that get in wheat, oats, and other spring-harvested grains and grass seed. If these bublets get in wheat, the grain
elevators reduce the price they will pay for the grain.
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Wild mustard …
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Wild turnip …
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Wild mustard, wild turnip
and wild radish are all problem weeds in ryegrass, fescue and similar forage
grass seed. They all look like the
mustard turnip and radish seed we buy to plant in our gardens.
Slide 96
Common morningglory seed are
usually black and shaped like the sections of an orange seed, but they can be brown
instead of black.
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Purple moonflower is a
serious problem in soybean seed. The
seed are usually dark brown and shaped like common morning glory.
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Balloonvine is another
problem weed in soybeans. The seed are
easy to recognize because of the unusual black and white color.
Slide 102
Hempsesbania, or sesbania as
it is usually called, is sometimes called coffeeweed. Seed are dark brown, round and oblong.
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Sicklepod seed are brown and
the ends appear to be “chopped off.”
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Smartweed is dark brown, dark
purple to black and shiny. Seed may be flat
and rounded or triangular and pointed at one end.
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Teaweed seed are dull brown
with two spikes at one end.
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Wild barley is straw-colored
and very chaffy with several spine like projections.
Slide 112
Red rice is shaped like commercial
rice, straw-colored to blackish-gray with or without awns.
Red rice is shorter and
wider than other rice. When the hulls
are removed, the seed are red or black.
MSU-ES would like to express
our appreciation to the Mississippi Department of Agriculture & Commerce
Seed Testing Laboratory for supplying the seed samples!
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