BioConcepts

dormancyDormanz (ger.)

• An inactive period in the life of an animal or plant during which growth slows or completely ceases. (Oxford Dict. of Biology 2008)
  category sleep

  1804

  During […] dormancy, the animal may be frozen, without the destruction of the muscular irritability

  Carlisle, A. (1804). Continuation of an account of a peculiar arrangement in the arteries distributed on the muscles of slow-moving animals, & c. Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. 95, 17-23: 18.

  1818

  These seeds [of certain plants] must owe their incorruptibility to some self-preserving principle, and their dormancy to the debarred approach of the solar streams of light

  Inglis, G. (1818). On the preservation of seeds, the use of lime in agriculture, and former state of cultivation in Scotland. The Philosophical Magazine and Journal 52, 436-440: 436.

  1929

  When a seed does not germinate immediately upon leaving the parent plant, it is said to be in a state of dormancy. Dormancy is not confined to seeds, however, but is also characteristic of many offshoots such as rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, etc.

  Weaver, J.E. & Clements, F.E. (1929). Plant Ecology: 113.

  1960

  thermische Induktion kann als Vernalisation bezeichnet werden, da sie eine Ruheperiode, Dormanz, überwindet.

  Rudorf, W. (1960). Entwicklungsphysiologische Grundlagen der Akklimatisation einiger Kulturpflanzen. Schriften des Vereines zur Verbreitung naturwissenschaftlicher Kenntnisse in Wien 100, 223-247: 230.

  1982

  dormancy 1: A state of relative metabolic quiescence, such as aestivation, cryptobiosis, diapause, hibernation and hypobiosis. 2: A state in which viable seeds, spores or buds fail to germinate under conditions favourable for germination and vegetative growth; dormant; cf. quiescence.    

  Lincoln, R.J., Boxshall, G.A. & Clark, P.F. (1982). A Dictionary of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics: 72.