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Present paper discusses the hardseededness, spontaneous germination, and germination aft er mechanical scarification for eight legume species: Lathyrus hirsutus, L. latifolius, L. nissolia, L. vernus, Vicia angustifolia, V. hirsuta, V. sepium and V. tetrasperma native to the Hungarian flora. Seed samples were collected between June 18 and July 21, 2016, at various localities in the Börzsöny Mts, Buda Hills and Visegrád Mts, north-central Hungary, and then were stored in paper bags at room temperature until use. Germination experiments were carried under laboratory conditions in Petri-dishes exposed to room temperature and natural light conditions, between September 21 and October 11, 2016. Two replicates of 50 seeds were prepared for each species, seeds in one of them were scarified on the 12th day of the experiment, and then both replicates were monitored for a further nine-day period under the same conditions. Samples of V. sepium got infected by some endogenous bacteria, therefore, results for this species were disregarded. For the other seven species, average hardseededness of the two replicates varied between 79% and 100% on the 12th day of the germination test. For the unscarifi ed replicates, which were monitored until the 21st day, hardseededness ratio varied between 70% and 96% depending on the species. Th e spontaneous germination rates of the unscarifi ed samples on the 21st day varied between 2% (L. hirsutus, V. angustifolia, V. hirsuta) and 22% (L. latifolius). Intermediate germination rates were observed for V. tetrasperma (6%), L. nissolia (10%) and L. vernus (12%). Mechanical scarifi cation considerably enhanced the soft ening of hard seeds and resulted in high rate of germination for six species with values varying between 52% and 90%. L. vernus, however, was an exception with 6% of germination rate although the rate of imbibed seeds increased to 82%. Apart from L. vernus, the rate of imbibed seeds without germination was also high (32%) for L. latifolius, but in this case the rate of successfully germinated seeds was also high (64%). For these two Lathyrus species, experimental results suggest that combined dormancy (physical and physiological) may regulate the germination. In statistical comparison the ratio of hardseededness for the group of perennial species was signifi cantly lower than for the group of annual species (P = 0.0020). Also, when hardseededness rate of weeds and disturbance tolerant species were compared with the group of subordinate species in natural plant communities, the latter had signifi cantly lower percentages (P = 0.0098). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]