The monitoring of herbaceous seeds in the 30-km zone of the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

Species of wild herbaceous plants growing over a period of 3 years under chronic irradiation resulting from the Chernobyl accident were studied. Examining the mass of 1000 seeds and their germination did not yield any significant differences between groups of seeds of the same species collected from different contaminated zones. Nor did the frequency of aberrant cells in roots of germinated seeds reveal any significant differences between zones. Seeds of Plantago lanceolata, growing in areas with higher levels of radiation, did appear to be more sensitive to additional gamma-irradiation.