Background germination and seed processing techniques:
Seedling counts were greater at HD than HR and were significantly greater in planted cells than unplanted control cells at both sites (Fig. 2; common garden x cell type: p-value = 0.006). However, while background germination was essentially negligible at HR (0.01 mean seedlings per unplanted control cell), there was a mean of 1.5 seedlings per control cell at HD (Fig. 2). Neither of our seed processing techniques intended to facilitate seed extraction (soaked and sheathed) caused planted seeds to germinate at a different rate than untreated seeds (p 0.12; Appendix B). Thus, we included all seed treatment subsets and untreated seeds together in further analyses.