Faveleira (Cnidoscolus phyllacanthus (Mart.) Pax et K. Hoffm.) inerme: obtenção de mudas e crescimento comparado ao fenótipo com espinhos.

Abstract

There are few thorn-free faveleira (Cnidoscolus phyllacanthus (Mart.) Pax. et K. Hoffm.) individuals, and the identification of mother trees capable of producing progeny with this characteristic would be advantageous to enlarge the gene basis in a plant improvement program of that sub-population with the objective to domesticate it and make easier its widespread commercial utilization. Thus, the objective of the present study was to determine the possibility to obtain thorn-free faveleira seedlings from seeds collected from native mother trees, identify these trees and estimate the proportion of their progeny bearing this desirable characteristic. The experiment was carried out in the Forest Nursery of the Department of Forest Engineering of the Federal University of Campina Grande, in Patos/PB, from March 2002 to November 2003. The number of the randomly arranged replications (a seed or seedling) depended on seed or seedling quantity available for each treatment (nine mother trees). The proportions of germinated seeds and thorn-free 30-day-old progenies for each mother tree were compared by the Student´s "t" test. Seven mother trees under an open pollination regimen produced a similar and stable proportion of thorn-free seedlings in two consecutive years, and five (M32, M57, M61, MSN and M59) transmitted this character to more than 15% of their descendents. It may be said that M32, M57, M61 and MSN showed a high potential of seed and forage production, due to the relatively high number of vigorous seeds collected each year and the proportion of up to 20% of thorn-free seedlings observed in their progeny, except the young MSN, which needs more data collection to confirm its performance.