Abstract

The understanding of the morphology of fruits, seeds and seedlings is very important on the identification and the preservation of species. The work describes and illustrates morphological characteristics of fruits, seeds, germination, and seedlings of Acasia farnesiana. The fruits were collected manually from parent trees selected at random, in the municipality of Sousa State of Paraíba. After collection, they were packed in polyethylene bags and taken to the Seed Analysis Laboratory, Universidade Federal da Paraiba, Areia-PB. Subsequently, evaluations were made of the morphological and morphometric characteristics of fruit, seed germination stages, and seedling. The fruit is of type nucule vegetable, plain, dry, polysemy, glabrous, linear-format wavy and late dehiscence. The seeds are stenospermics, format obovoid, apex rounded, and base slightly rounded. The germination is epigeal - phanerocotyledonal, starting on the third day and may be terminated on the seventh day after sowing. It was possible to describe and illustrate in detail the morphology of fruit, seeds, germination stages, and seedling of the species, considering the characteristics of easy recognition, standardization, rapid achievement, and high probability of establishment in the field.

Key words: Vachellia farnesiana, biometry, native species, forest seeds.