Arquitetura aérea de Lychnophora Salicifolia Mart. e teste de Raio X no desempenho germinativo

Abstract

The species Lychnophora salicifolia Mart., popularly known as arnicão, was selected to carry out this study, for being a native species from Brazil, with landscape potential, ecological and medicinal importance. The general objective of this study is to use the X-ray test to investigate the internal morphology of Lychnophora salicifolia achenes and evaluate its relationship with germination performance, while it also proposes to analyze the aerial architecture of populations of this species in two regions of Cerrado in the municipality of Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, providing an understanding of these plants in their natural environment. The achenes were analyzed using X-ray tests, where eight repetitions of 25 achenes were carried out, for four batches, to generate images of the seeds and correlate with the germination test. The full achenes that did not germinate were subjected to the tetrazolium test to verify viability. It was identified that not all full achenes germinated, but they showed viability by the tetrazolium test. Regarding aerial architecture, 120 plants were evaluated, where it was found that the soil attributes that differed most between the two regions were: K, Ca, Mg. Other factors varied little. Regarding the differences in the aerial architecture of the plants evaluated, in these two locations, L. salicifolia proved to be highly polymorphic with more evident architectural variations in parameters such as: maximum height, height of the main branch and diameter of the main branch. The study demonstrated efficiency in the relationship between the use of the X-ray test and the germination of x-rayed achenes classified as full, in addition to showing morphometric differences in the aerial architecture between the two locations, despite the proximity between them. Given the high degree of phenotypic plasticity and resistance to nutrient-poor environments, more in-depth studies on the biology of L. salicifolia are needed to understand why full and viable cypselae do not always germinate.