Detaching of spermoderm, position of the seeds on germination and initial growth of pau-brasil (Caesalpinia echinata Lam.) seedlings

Abstract

With purpose to study the influence of the detaching of spermoderm and position of seeds on germination and later growth of seedlings of Caesalpinia echinata Lam., an experiment was carried out in greenhouse of Didactic Vegetable Garden, Botany Department, ESALQ. It was installed two plots with 450 seeds each one, being one plot with and the other wi thout spermoderm. It was verified that seeds with spermoderm showed 76% germination, while seeds without spermoderm the germination was zero. It was observed the following parameters: length of future principal root (CR),distance between coll urn to insertion of cotyledonous leaves (DCFC), distance between cotyledonous leaves to insertion of definitive first leaf (DFCIFD), length and width of other definitive leaves. It was verified that position of seeds do not affected germination, but to character DCFD of growth seedling it was detected significance at 5% level, also for length of the first two definitive leaves.