Morphological characterization of fruits, seeds, seedlings and germination of Mucuna aterrima Piper & Tracy

Abstract

The understanding of the morphology of fruit, seeds and seedlings is very important on the identification and on the preservation of vegetable species. This work was aimed to study the biometry and the morphology of fruit, seeds and seedlings, as well as to describe and to illustrate the germination and seedlings development of Mucuna aterrima Piper & Tracy seedlings. The essay was conducted at the Laboratory of Seeds Analysis of the Federal University of Ceara, in Fortaleza-CE. It was characterized the seed size (length, breadth and thickness), the morphology and the type of germination on the seedling was characterized the root system, hypocotyl, epicotyl and foliage leaves. The measurements were done with a digital caliper and millimetered ruler. It was observed that the fruits presents 11.9 cm of length, 0.7 cm of width and 0.5 cm of thickness. The seeds are estenospermics, with form reniform to elliptic and they have 13.8 mm of length, 10.2 mm of breadth and 7.3 mm of thickness. The germination is hypogeal cryptocotylar, evidenced for characters very homogeneous among the selected seedlings, what can be used to identify this specie.