Physiological Variability in Seeds of a Natural Population of Hymenaea martiana Hayne in Paraíba, Brazil

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Abstract
Seed quality is essential for developing conservation, management, and ecological restoration techniques, selecting highquality seed lots, and understanding the genetic variability of species. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the physiological quality of seeds from 80 mother trees in a natural population of Hymenaea martiana in Areia, Paraíba, Brazil. Seed vigor was assessed based on traits related to emergence and early seedling development. The data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA), with means compared using the Scott-Knott test at a 5% significance level, and complemented by Pearson correlation and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Mother trees M86, M145, M157, M171, M184, and M187 demonstrated superior performance in emergence traits, while M8, M86, M88, M117, and M152 exhibited greater shoot length. Mother trees M10, M11, M12, M14, M21, M24, M73, and M152 produced seedlings with greater root length, while M187 produced seedlings with higher root dry weight. In PCA, three principal components explained 81.63% of the total data variance, with emergence traits contributing most to PC1, mean emergence time to PC2, and root length and dry weight to PC3. In this context, the evaluated natural population of H. martiana mother trees exhibited variability in seed physiological quality, primarily driven by first emergence count, emergence speed index, and final emergence percentage.
Funding Information
  • CNPq (1018672024-7)
  • CNPq (4064722023-8)
  • CNPq/MCTI (1018672024-7)
  • CNPq/MCTI (4064722023-8)

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