1 Mississippi 4-H SEED IDENTIFICATION Study Guide PPB

2 Compiled by Dr. Dennis Reginelli Area Extension Agent Agronomic Crops

3 Presentation Prepared by Kathy Nash MSU-ES Support Services AV Reference Room Manager/Information & Graphics Technician

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5 When we think of Corn seed, we usually think of…. Field Corn

6 However, corn also includes ….

7 Sweet Corn And ….

8 Popcorn

9 Corn seed are usually …… Yellow, White or can be Red or Mixed Colors grown for decorative purposes.

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11 Cottonseed, as they come from the gin, have a considerable amount of lint and linters on the seed.

12 When seeds are processed, some or all of the lint is removed. This process is by mechanical delinting, flame delinting, partially acid delinting or Completely acid delinting. Cottonseed will almost always be treated when it is processed. Delinted Treated

13 Treated Ginned and delinted Samples of the three stages of cottonseed:

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15 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.

16 Red rice may or may not have awns attached. Red rice is considered a weed. Red Rice with awns Red Rice without awns

17 If the awns are not attached to red rice, they are easily taken for regular or field grown rice. Regular or Field Grown Rice Red Rice with awns Red Rice without awns

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19 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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21 These seeds are long and slender compared to those of wheat. Oats may vary from Red, Yellow or White.

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23 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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25 Sorghum is oval-shaped. Seed size is variable and color can vary from black to brown to orange to white and can be treated. Raw Treated

26 Samples of the two stages of sorghum seed: Raw Treated Treated/Raw

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28 Soybeans are variable in size. The seed coat is usually yellow, but it can be brown or black …

29 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.

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31 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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33 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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35 Subterranean or subclover seed are large for clover seed, round and purple-black.

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37 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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39 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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41 Alfalfa is a kidney-shaped seed. Color varies from light yellow to brown.

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43 It is hard to distinguish between korean and kobe lespedeza. Kobe seed is a little lighter brown than korean and are usually slightly larger. Kobe lespedeza Korean lespedeza

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45 Korean lespedeza has little or no hairs on the pod. The veins in the pod are more prominent.

46 If hulled, Korean lespedeza seed are light brown to green and may or may not be mottled. Unhulled Korean lespedeza seed are red and slightly hairy.

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48 Sericea lespedeza seed is usually hulled and light brown to green and flecked with purple.

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50 Wild winter peas are rounded and the seed coat looks rough. Seed are gray to black in color.

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52 Hairy vetch varies in size. Seed are round. The seed coat is smooth and dull black.

53 There are many other vetches. Seed size varies. Most have a red brown to green brown speckled or mottled seed coat. Common vetchHairy vetch

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55 Pensacola bahiagrass are light or straw- green, slightly longer than they are wide, smooth and flow freely.

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57 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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59 Argentine bahiagrass is larger and more wrinkled than Pensacola bahiagrass, and about the same color.

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61 Ryegrass has an awn or remains of an awn. The awn end tapers. The other end of the seed is wide, rounded and flared.

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63 Fescue resembles ryegrass but does not have an awn. The lower end is more tapered than ryegrass.

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65 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.

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67 Pearl millet is so named because this seed resembles a pearl. Pearl millet rawPearl millet treatedPearl millet treated/raw

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69 Brown top millet is usually in the hull and light brown.

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71 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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73 Sudan grass is a forage crop. The seed resemble Johnsongrass but are usually larger and lighter in color and smooth.

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75 Weed seed are a problem in crop seed. Dock Crotalaria Cheat Wild Mustard Balloonvine

76 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. Wild Turnip Moonflower Morningglory Cocklebur Smartweed Wild Garlic

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78 No one should have a problem identifying cocklebur.

79 Sometimes when cockleburs are in cottonseed, the spines have been cut off and they may have some seed treatment on them.

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81 Dock is sometimes found in clover seed. The seeds are light to dark brown and triangular.

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83 Crotalaria is a problem in soybeans. The seeds are flat, kidney-shaped and shiny black.

84 Grain elevators will not buy soybeans for the grain market if they contain crotalaria seed!

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86 Cheat is a problem in weed seed, oat and grass seed such as fescue and ryegrass.

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88 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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90 Wild mustard … (looks similar to cultivated varieties)

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92 Wild turnip … (looks similar to cultivated varieties)

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94 Wild radish (looks similar to cultivated varieties)

95 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. Wild radishWild turnip Wild mustard

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97 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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99 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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101 Balloonvine is another problem weed in soybeans. The seed are easy to recognize because of the unusual black and white color.

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103 Hempsesbania, or sesbania as it is usually called, is sometimes called coffeeweed. Seed are dark brown, round and oblong.

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105 Sicklepod seed are brown and the ends appear to be “chopped off.”

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107 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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109 Teaweed seed are dull brown with two spikes at one end.

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111 Wild barley is straw-colored and very chaffy with several spine like projections.

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113 Red rice is shaped like commercial rice, straw-colored to blackish-gray with or without awns.

114 Red rice is shorter and wider than other rice. When the hulls are removed, the seed are red or black. Regular or Field Rice Red Rice without awns Red Rice with awns

115 MSU-ES would like to express our appreciation to the Mississippi Department of Agriculture & Commerce Seed Testing Laboratory for supplying the seed samples! Photos taken by Marco Nicovich, Research Photographer & Darkroom Manager Agricultural Communications

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