Tecnologia de sementes e parâmetros morfofisiológicos na propagação de Tabernaemontana catharinensis A. DC. (Apocynaceae)

Abstract

Tabernaemontana catharinensis, popularly known as cobrina, is a native tree, which belongs to the family Apocynaceae. This species is suitable for reforestation, it is rich in phytochemicals compounds and it is used in folk medicine in the form of tea or infusion of its leaves and barks. Impacts of the indiscriminate extraction of seeds and vegetative parts of native species have increased in recent years, being the cultivation of plants on a large scale in a sustainable manner one of the challenges for production - without compromising natural resources. However many species still lack ecological, physiological and agronomic information. Then, the aims of this study were to evaluate the physiological quality of seeds and morphophysiological parameters of T. catharinensis propagated in vitro and ex vitro. In this regard, ripe fruits were collected in mid lateral third of five arrays with approximately four meters high and located in the remaining vegetation in the city of Ijuí, Northwest region of Rio Grande do Sul (28° 26' 07 "S and 53° 57' 50"W). The experiments were performed in laboratory and in greenhouse. In the laboratory, seeds were germinated in the presence of light (photoperiod of 16 hours) and in the absence of light (continuous dark), by testing five temperatures: 15, 20, 25, 30 °C and alternating 20 to 30 °C (night-day). Three conditions and storage temperatures: 25 ± 1 °C (growth room), 10 ± 1 °C (refrigerator) and 4 ± 1 °C (cold room), were part of the experiment. They were used to check the germination behavior and the water content during six periods seed storage (30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 days). We observed that, regardless of photoperiod (photoperiod of 16 hours and continuous darkness), 25 and 30 °C temperatures promoted the highest percentage of germination of T. catharinensis seeds. T. catharinensis seeds behave as neutral photoblastic. The storage of seeds of T. catharinensis for 180 days reduces the water content of the seeds, not occurring the reduction in germination potential, which demonstrates an orthodox behavior. For the experiments in vitro conditions, in order to obtain seedlings and the establishment of T. catharinensis, seeds were pre-soaked in gibberellic acid (GA3) at concentrations of 0.0; 300 and 600 mg L-1 in two regimes of time 24 and 48 hours. Afterwards, the cotyledon segments of 1 cm seedlings obtained in vitro germination. With 70 days old, they were inoculated in culture medium with 100% of minerals MS (MURASHIGE; SKOOG, 1962), plus combinations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) 0.0; 1.0; 2.0; 4.0; 6.0 mg L-1 and naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) 0.0; 0.1; 0.2; 0.4; 0.6 mg L-1. For in vitro rooting experiment, microcuttings of 90 days, with three pairs of leaves, were inoculated in MS medium (MURASHIGE; SKOOG, 1962), supplemented with IBA concentrations 0.0; 1.0; 2.0; 4.0; 6.0 mg L1. The percentage of germination was not significantly different in pre-soaked seeds in GA3, however we observed a reduction in the speed of germination at concentrations of 300 and 600 mg L-1 of GA3 for 48h of immersion. In vitro establishment, we verified the direct organogenesis of adventitious shoots from cotyledons of cobrina without the need for growth regulator, but the use of BAP associated with NAA maximized the number of shoots, leaves and fresh mass of shoots. For the in vitro experiment rooting supplementation of 1.0 and 6.0 mg L-1 of IBA to the culture medium resulted in the highest rooting rate (96.5 and 89%, respectively) and root length (15.96 and 15.60 cm, respectively). The absence of growth regulators (IBA) decreased the number of tips and root volume and the contents of chlorophyll b. For the experiment in the greenhouse, the treatments were Mecplant® substrate compositions (commercial substrate), fine texture vermiculite (V) and carbonized rice husk (CRH), by evaluating their influence on the emergence, vigor and morphophysiological parameters of T. catharinensis. We found out that the isolated use of commercial substrate 100% Mecplant® occurred less emergency and IVG seedlings, which negatively affected the growth characteristics. The commercial substrate associated with inert material vermiculite in formulations 50% Mecplant® + 50% V and 25% Mecplant® + 75% V showed higher expression of seed vigor and greater seedling growth, proving to be more appropriate, from the study to the formation of cobrina seedlings. Levels of chlorophyll b, as well as the total carotenoid are not influenced by the substrates. The ratio of chlorophyll a/b is higher in the treatments T2 (75% Mecplant® + 25% V), T4 (25% Mecplant® + 75% V) and T5 (75% Mecplant® + 25% CRH).