The objective of this research was to study the physiological performance of Tabebuia heptaphylla (Vell.) Toledo seeds during storage. Fruits from 15 mother plants were hand picked and placed under shade to finish drying and to ease further manual extraction of seeds. Firstly, the initial moisture content of the seeds was determined, which was 15.6%. Following that, the remaining seeds were submitted to drying at ambient temperature inside a glass desicator in order to obtain the other desired moisture contents (11.5, 8.1 and 4.3%). The samples, corresponding to the different moisture contents were stored inside chambers at temperatures of 10, 20 and -196 °C. At the beginning and after 120, 240 and 360 days of storage, the seeds were submitted to several physiological evaluations. The experiment was a factorial, in a completely randomized design, with 4 treatments (moisture contents) at beginning of storage and 12 treatments (4 moisture contents x 3 thermal conditions), in each evaluation date, during storage. Mean comparison was made by the Tukey test at 5%. It was concluded that the preservation of Tabebuia heptaphylla seeds, at water contents 15.6, 11.5, 8.1 and 4,3% is favored by temperatures from 10 and -196 °C.
Bignoniaceae; Tabebuia heptaphylla; storage; propagation
