Ecologia morfofuncional de plântulas de espécies arbóreas da estação ecológica do Panga, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais

Abstract

The classification ofseedlings wasused to study 122 tree species of the Ecological Starion of Panga, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais. The seedlings morphological characteristícs and functions study is very important at a ecological and systematic aspect Aiming to obtain more information about the functional morphology of the seedlings, the tree species of three continuous forest formations - gallery forest, semideciduous forest and "061X3030'' - had its seedlings classified according to lhe cotiledons position, texture and exhibition. This study had lhe objectives, a) to verify if ali the studied species fit in the classification andb) to verify ifseedling morphology has anyrelstionwithsome ecological traits, such as, ecological groups, dispersion types, fiuiting period, seeds weight, specific habitats, sexual systems, or biomass allocation. The species were subdivided in fíve categories, being 63 species of lhe phaneroepigeal-foliaceous type (PEF), 20 species of the phanero-epigeal-fleshy type (PER), 10 of the phsnero-hypogesl-fleshy type (PHR), 28 of the cryptohypogesl-fleshy type (CHR) and only one specie of the crypto-epigesl-fleshy type (CER). After classifying, the seedlings were relate to the ecological traits, aiming to find a direct relation of the seedlings morphology with its estáblishment According to the results obtained theclassification usedwas very effective, representing almost ali the species. It was also demonstrated the high relation of the functional morphology characteres with some ecological characteristics, such as, ecological groups, seeds weight, sexual systems and specific habitats. This demonstrates that, at íeast in lhe initial stage, the seedlings morphology has decisive function in the development and estáblishment processes.