Sementes de Campomanesia adamantium (Myrtaceae): uma categoria intermediária quanto à tolerância à dessecação e armazenamento?

Abstract

Success in seed storage depends on knowledge about its behavior during this period under different conditions, which allows the use of appropriate techniques for maintaining viability. Campomanesia adamantium, a Myrtaceae popularly known as “guavira”, is native to the Cerrado and considered medicinal, in addition to having economic potential for its use in food. C. adamantium seeds have already been classified as recalcitrant, demonstrating to be a species with seeds that do not tolerate drying until low levels of water content. However, there are conflicting results in the literature when it comes to the behavior of this species during storage, demonstrating that there is a need to evaluate the set of factors that affect the viability of these seeds under different storage conditions to determine the presence or not of recalcitrance. Based on the above, the objective of the present work was to evaluate the performance of C. adamantium seeds after desiccation and during storage under different conditions. C. adamantium seeds were dried to 35; 30; 25; 20; 15; 12.5; 10; 7.5 and 5% water. The seeds with 35, 30, 20, 15, 12.5 and 10% of water were submitted to storage at 25ºC ± 2ºC and 60% RH, 20ºC ± 2ºC and 45% RH, 8ºC ± 1ºC and 30% UR and -7ºC ± 1ºC and 40% RH. We found that seeds of this species tolerate drying up to 5% water. In addition, they can be stored at 25ºC ± 2 and 60% RH for up to 60 days without prejudice to viability, as long as it is high in water content (35% or 30%). Consequently, we conclude that C. adamantium seeds have an intermediate behavior to desiccation and storage.