Morfologia de frutos, sementes e plântulas de espécies florestais

Abstract

Fabaceae, a family with a large-scale geographic distribution and characterized as the third largest family of angiosperms cataloged (JUDD et al., 2009), has as its main characteristic the legume-like fruit (TALKUDAR, 2013). This family is subdivided into three subfamilies, one of which is the Mimosoideae with about 3270 species (LPWG, 2013). Within this family and subfamily is the species Adenanthera pavonina L., native to India and Malaysia, with good adaptation in Brazil (CORRÊA, 1978). Lecythidaceae is a family of trees that has a pantropical distribution in the tropics of Central and South America and in Southeast Asia and Africa. The genus Lecythis is the third largest in the family with 26 species (MORI, 2004). Lecythis lurida (Miers) S. A. Mori, popularly known as inhaíba, is a tree species tolerant to open places and dry land, suitable for use in degraded areas of permanent preservation (LORENZI, 2002). The study of the morphology of fruits, seeds and seedlings in initial development stages allows to improve the knowledge of the reproduction of plant species, provides subsidies for the production of seedlings (GUERRA et al., 2006), besides constituting an important tool to detect the variability genetics within populations of a given species and its relationship with environmental factors, and can be used in genetic improvement programs (GUSMÃO; VIEIRA; FONSECA JÚNIOR, 2006). Still according to Bewley et al. (2013), the morphological characteristics of seeds are different between plant classes, families and species, with discrepant reserve tissues and tegument forms, even though some development mechanisms are common between species. Morphological studies provide subsidies to differentiate species and corroborate the understanding of the process of germination, storage, vigor and viability, characterizing ecological aspects such as dispersion, seedling establishment and succession phase (MATHEUS AND LOPES, 2007). Due to the great diversity of exotic and native species of multiple economic and ecological uses, in a huge territorial area of various edaphoclimatic aspects, some tree plants such as Adenanthera pavonina and Lecythis lurida lack biometric and morphological information intrinsic to the species that allow understanding their behavior in its distinct stages of development, conservation strategies and techniques for producing higher quality seedlings in less time. In this way, the objective of the present work was to describe the morphological characters from fruits, seeds and seedlings of A. pavonina and from fruits and seeds of L. lurida.