Morphometric Characterization of Attalea maripa (Arecaceae) from Roraima State, Brazil

Abstract

We characterized three different morphotypes of inajá (Atallea maripa (Aublet.) Mart.) based on the stipe foliar insertion: columnar (morphotype M1), semi-spiraled (morphotype M2) and spiraled (morphotype M3) insertion. The present study quantified the number of leaves, the production of bunches and the DBH of the matrices and made morphometric analyses of the fruits and morphological characterization of the seedlings, for each morphotype. Bunches bearing A. maripa fruits, originating from natural regeneration, were collected from silvopastoral systems distributed throughout six counties of the state of Roraima, in order to study their morphometry. Four replicates of twenty diaspores were sown according to the Seed Analysis Rules, for seedling morphology study. The semi-spiraled morphotype presented the highest values of size and weight of fruits and seeds (diaspores). Morphotype M2 is likely to be an intermediate form of a widely variable character within A. maripa. The most frequent inflorescences amongst the studied morphotypes showed to be predominantly female, androgynous and predominantly male inflorescences were also found along with more than one type of inflorescence per individual. There is a wide variability as to the coloring of the fruits regardless of their origin. Atallea maripa seedlings did not present the typical characteristics described for the genus Attalea.