TAMANHO DA SEMENTE E SOMBREAMENTO NO DESENVOLVIMENTO INICIAL DE Brosimum gaudichaudii TRÉCUL

Abstract

The mama-cadela (Brosimum gaudichaudii Trécul) is a species of the Brazilian cerrado consid- ered a priority for conservation and management of plant genetic resources. The roots of B. gaudichaudii are used to obtain psoralen and bergapten to produce medicine against vitiligo. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of seed size and levels of shading in the early development of seedlings of B. gaudichaudii. It was used a completely randomized experimental design in factorial scheme 3 x 3, three seed sizes (small, medium and large) and three shade conditions (0%, 30% and 60%), with four replications of 25 seeds. These characteristics were percentage of emergence and survival, height, basal diameter, height/diameter and number of leaves of seedlings until 120 days after sowing. The highest percentage emergence occurred in 60% shading and large seeds (70%). These seeds originate seedlings with higher height (20.4 cm) and smaller basal diameter (1.4 cm), while small seeds at the same level of shading formed smaller height (8 cm) and basal diameter (2 4 cm) of seedlings. The number of leaves was higher in cultivated plants in full sun and was not influenced by the size of the seed. The height/diameter was lower for seedlings grown in full sun. The highest quality of seedlings of B. gaudichaudii is obtained with large seeds provided no shading.