Fruit and seed biometrical characteristics of Peltophorum dubium (Spreng.) Taub.

Abstract

Peltophorum dubium is a native species with great economic potential and widely used in urban and rural tree planting in South America, however, it was found there was little information on the intrinsic characteristics of fruits and seeds. Biometric characteristics of fruits and seeds are important for the formation of uniform seed lots, for studies of dispersion and quality seedling production. Thus, the aim of this work was to determine and correlate main fruit and seed biometrical characteristics of P. dubium in order to provide information on the productive and economic potentialities of this species. A total of 100 fruits and 100 seeds with respect to the length, width, thickness, fruit and seed fresh mass, fruit peel fresh mass, number of seeds per fruit, seed dry matter and moisture content were measured. The biometric characteristics were analyzed by frequency distribution, calculating the Spearman correlation coefficient (rS) and significance level using the t test (P = 0.05). P. dubium fruits and seeds have great variability for most biometric characteristics measured, as well as predominantly positive correlation between these variables. The seeds have great potential for high dry matter yield, being possible the selection of seeds with higher dry matter by characteristics such as seed fresh mass.