Growth and reproduction of the understory palm Geonoma schottiana Mart. in the gallery forest in Central Brazil

Abstract

-(Growth and reproduction of the understory palm Geonoma schottiana Mart. in the gallery forest in Central Brazil). To understand the growth and reproduction of the palm Geonoma schottiana in the gallery forest of Central Brazil, two hypotheses were raised: (i) production of leaves and reproductive structures are concentrated in the period of the year with high light availability; (ii) leaf production and reproductive activity are related to plant length. However, it is expected that senility effects will cause fast reduction in growth and reproduction activities in higher plants. Growth and reproduction were concentrated in the dry season, when insolation is higher than in the wet season, suggesting that leaf and inflorescence production on G. schottiana in the gallery forest understory is more limited by light than by soil humidity. As the individual grows, leaf number and blade area increase, but reproduction activity is independent of plant length. Resources stored in the stem are important to growth, but exogenous factors, as canopy openness, should be more important to reproduction. Plant senescence seems to have a lesser effect on the production of vegetative and reproductive structures in G. schottiana than has been detected in congeneric species with greater clonal activity.Key words -life stage, reproductive and vegetative phenology, seasonality, senescence RESUMO -(Crescimento e reprodução da palmeira de sub-bosque Geonoma schottiana Mart. em mata de galeria no Brasil Central). Para compreender os fatores que influenciam o crescimento e a reprodução de Geonoma schottiana em mata de galeria no Brasil Central, foram levantadas duas hipóteses: (i) a produção de folhas e de estruturas reprodutivas está concentrada no período do ano de maior insolação; (ii) a produção de folhas e a atividade reprodutiva estão relacionadas ao comprimento do indivíduo. Entretanto, espera-se encontrar uma redução brusca nas atividades de crescimento e reprodução em indivíduos mais altos devido aos efeitos da senilidade. O crescimento e a reprodução ocorreram concentrados na estação seca, quando a insolação é maior do que na estação úmida. Assim, a produção de folhas e inflorescências de G. schottiana no sub-bosque de matas de galeria pode ser mais limitada pela luminosidade do que pela umidade do solo. Conforme o indivíduo cresce, o número de folhas e a área foliar aumentam, mas a atividade reprodutiva foi independente do comprimento do indivíduo. Os recursos armazenados no estipe são importantes para o crescimento, embora os fatores exógenos, como a abertura do dossel, possam ser mais importantes para a reprodução do que os carboidratos armazenados. A senilidade dos indivíduos parece ter um efeito menor na produção de estruturas vegetativas e reprodutivas ao contrário do que o tem sido detectado em espécies

Phenology, biometric parameters and productivity of fruits of the palm Butia capitata (Mart.) Beccari in the Brazilian cerrado in the north of the state of Minas Gerais

“…In B. capitata, height can be a good indicator of the productivity of infructescences or leaves, as has been observed for other species of palms such as those of the genera Geonoma (Chazdón 1992, Sampaio & Scariot 2008 and Chamaedorea (Otero-Arnaiz & Oyama 2001), as well as Acrocomia aculeata (Scariot et al 1995). Similarly, the number of green leaves, which represents the foliar aerial biomass and the photosynthetic potential, is a good indicator of the productivity in B. capitata.…”

“…Studies on palms in tropical forests indicate that this pattern of continuous fruiting is common (Peres 1994, Martén & Quesada 2001, Miller 2002, Sampaio & Scariot 2008, as is a pattern of flowering and fruiting concentrated in one of the seasons of the year (Ibarra-Manríquez 1992, Scariot et al 1995, Henderson et al 2000.…”

“…(Sampaio & Scariot 2008); 2.2 for Chamaedorea tepejilote (Oyama 1993); 4.0 for Prestoea montana (Lugo & Battle 1987); and 1.3-2.6 for Astrocaryum mexicanum (Piñero et al 1984). This value can be highly variable between years and between individuals in a population, and caution should therefore be used when applying these values in the growth estimate (Tomlinson 1979).…”

Effects of stochastic herbivory events on population maintenance of an understorey palm species (Geonoma schottiana) in riparian tropical forest

“…Geonoma schottiana have a high proportion of individuals in the initial life stages, clonal growth, high fertility, with seeds produced during nearly all months of the year (Sampaio & Scariot 2008), that can remain dormant for more than 4 y in an abundant soil seed bank (Sampaio 2006), with a large number of seedlings emerging annually (3525 ± 482 seedlings ha −1 ). All of these processes could contribute to population maintenance in stochastic disturbances (Alfonso-Corrado et al 2007, Jacquemyn et al 2006, Sletvold & Rydgren 2007.…”

Padrão Fenológico de Attalea maripa (Aubl.) Mart. em Áreas de Pastagens na Amazônia Oriental

“…2008; Sampaio & Scariot, 2008;Freitas et al, 2010;Muniz, 2008;Tonini, 2011), isso porque a floração pode variar ano a ano, como consequência de irregularidades climáticas (Rubim et al, 2010).…”