Variación en el tamaño y germinación de semillas en la especie Spirotheca rimbachii (Malváceas) distribuida en el sur oriente ecuatoriano

Abstract

Morphological seed characteristics are utilized to study the genetic variables and conserve the genetic resources. However, studies in Tropical zones are few. The objectives of this work were: a) Identify patterns of interspecific variations in the size and seed germination of the species Spirotheca rimbachii, which is distributed in the tropical rainforest from south west of Ecuador. b) Determine the morphological variation of fruits and seeds between individuals. c) Determine the variation of the percentage of germination of seeds between individuals. The weights of fruits and seeds are analyzed along with the amount of seeds per fruit. Also different seed imbibition treatments were tested for germination trials. The average amount of fruits was 18,08 cm in length and 9,8 cm wide, meanwhile, the amount of seeds were 9,71 mm in length and 7,96 mm wide with a weight of 0,23 g. The most variable characteristic was the number of seeds per fruit varying between 50 and 150 seeds. The percentages of germination did not increase with germinating treatments obtaining higher results in the individual 2 (80 %) and individual 4 (90%).