Evaluation of pre-germination treatments in Carapa guianensis AUBL

Abstract

Understanding seed germination of native forest species of the Tropical wet forest is essential for ecosystem regeneration and conservation, which have been affected by the exploitation of wood and non-wood forest products. Carapa guianensis Aulb. (Meliaceae) has been exploited due to the high quality of its wood and seeds. Particularly, the latter is a source of a medicinal oil of high value to the pharmaceutical industry. The indiscriminate use of this species has reduced its population size; therefore, scientific knowledge of its sexual propagation in nurseries is vital. This research aimed to evaluate seed germination of C. guianensis under different pre-germination treatments and substrates at the Centro de Investigación El Mira of AGROSAVIA. Pre-germination assays were conducted in a split-plot design with a random distribution of four repetitions. The cumulative germination percentage (CGP) and mean germination time (t50) were calculated and analyzed through an ANOVA, and Tukey’s multiple comparison test using InfoStat V.2016. Significant differences for CGP among treatments (p<0.0001) and interactions (p<0.0096) were found. The highest germination percentage (61%) was achieved in S1+T4; however, the T50 did not show significant differences (p=0.24). This research demonstrates that the highest germination percentage is achieved through a scarification treatment with imbibition in sand substrate under the agroclimatic conditions of Tumaco.

Seedlings germination aspects of the Carapa guianensis and its ecological conservation for the Amazonian peoples

“…The different substrates do not influence the percentage of germination; all the seeds sown germinated (Table 3), demonstrating that the form of storage for transport from the collection site to the sowing site was adequate for the conditions of Amapá. This confirms the information of Ferraz and Varela (2003), Amoêdo (2015) and Bacca, Zuluaga, Ivez-Perez, and Palacio (2020), which also obtained high percentages of germination for andirobeira. However, it is worth remembering that Oliveira and Macedo (2015) state that the percentage of germination over time varies with soil type.…”

“…Thus, as a possible solution in recent years, the interest in the propagation of multiple-use native forest species for reforestation has been observed, requiring research about their multiplication. One of the species with multiple uses is the andirobeira (Carapa guianensis Aublet), native to Amazonian forests, which is extensively commercially exploited and, for this reason, widely demanded by the industrial sector, both for medicines and cosmetics as well as for logging (Bacca, et al, 2020). However, the predatory extraction of this species has generated a decrease in its natural population (Oliveira and Macedo, 2015), with a high risk of genetic erosion (Furtado et al 2021).…”

“…The majority of research with andirobeira involves the pharmacology of the oil obtained from the seeds, ecology of adult trees, and plant and fruits phenology in adult individuals, reaching more than 99% of the scientific articles, while there are almost no articles with development of management techniques or seedling production to obtain new genetic matrices, whose purpose is to multiply the plants and thereby to avoid the genetic erosion (Oliveira and Macedo, 2015;Bacca, et al, 2020;Furtado et al, 2021). Lima and Pauletto (2021), show that no article from 2009 to 2019 involved aspects of germination in andirobeira.…”

Size and crown shape predict reproductive maturity of Carapa guianensis in upland and floodplain forests in the northeastern Amazon

“…Carapa guianeneses Aubl. (Meliaceae) is a species of evergreen tree that reaches 30–55 m height in adulthood (Bacca et al, 2020; Londres et al, 2017) and occurs frequently in the Amazon basin, Central America, and islands of the Caribbean (Kenfack, 2011). The species adapts to different environments, ranging from well‐drained sites (upland) up to 1400 m a.s.l.…”