Morphology of fruits, seeds and seedlings Guettarda platypoda DC. (Rubiaceae)

Abstract

Morphology of fruits, seeds and seedlings Guettarda platypoda DC. (Rubiaceae). Guettarda platypoda DC., popularly known as angélica, is a shrub of medicinal importance and it has Neotropical distribution. The aim of this work is to characterize morphologically its seeds, fruits and seedlings, adding data to support studies about its utilization and conservation of this specie. Ripe fruits were manually collected from ten matrix trees in the restinga of Maracaípe, stored in identified paper bags, and cooled until processing them in the laboratory. Fresh material was used for morphological analysis of fruits, seeds and seedlings. Fruits of G. platypoda are drups, with only one bilocular pireny, hypocotyl embryo and vestigial cotyledons. Seeds were treated to break dormancy, but even so seedling emergency was slow. Germination is epigeous and the cotyledons are foliaceous. The characteristics of fruits, seeds and seedlings of G. platypoda here described are useful for identification, as well as, to increase knowledge on the its biology.