Abstract

GUZMAN POZOS, Areli Madai; CRUZ CRUZ, Efraín  and  MIRANDA CORDOVA, Cesia Anaid. Germination of Byrsonima crassifolia (L.) Kunth seeds. Rev. mex. de cienc. forestales [online]. 2013, vol.4, n.20, pp.82-89. ISSN 2007-1132.

Byrsonima crassifolia ("nanche") is a species with commercial value of which, mainly, its fresh fruit is used. Its natural populations have been reduced in such a way that at present there are only patches or isolated individuals. Resetting of this taxon into ecosystem requires studies on seed germination, due to the presence of physical dormancy provided by a thick and impermeable endocarp that makes germination difficult. The aim of the study was to evaluate treatments to break pregerminative dormancy of the endocarp and achieve a higher and a more uniform germination percentage. Four treatments and a control were tested, which were: 1) Control; 2) H2SO4 2 h + GA3 500 ppm 2 h; 3) H2SO4 2 h + GA3 1 000 ppm 2 h; 4) H2SO4 1 h + GA3 500 ppm 2 h; y 5) H2SO4 1 h + GA3 1 000 ppm 2 h. The experiment was established in a completely randomized design with four replicates per treatment. Highly significant differences among treatments (α ≤ 0.01) were found in which the best result was achieved with the application of H2SO4 2 h + GA3 1 000 ppm, 2 h with a germination per cent of 51.2 ± 4.7 . It was concluded that nanche has physical dormancy and that it might be broken with scarification of the seed.

Keywords : Byrsonima crassifolia (L.) Kunth; endocarp; scarification; germination; physical dormancy; nanche.