Anatomical study of the subterranean organs of Aspidosperma Mart. (Apocynaceae)

• Grant number: 14/19175-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2014
• End date: November 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany - Plant Morphology
• Principal Investigator: Ingrid Koch
• Grantee: Eric Yasuo Kataoka
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The ability of plants to propagate vegetatively is considered an adaptation to disturbances such as fire, mechanical damage or fluctuations in temperature. Several cerrado species typically present the strategy of vegetative propagation in response to fire regimes. However, forest species, which are not exposed to such disturbances, have also been reported in the literature as being capable of reproduction by vegetative propagation. Aspidosperma Mart. (Apocynaceae) species are trees, often a striking component of the canopy in mature forests; it has economic interest in pharmacological compounds and timber. Despite the fact that vegetative propagation has been observed for the genus, there are no anatomical studies that characterizes it adequately. This proposal intends to study the anatomy of the underground organs of two species: A. cylindrocarpon Müll.Arg. (typical of semideciduous forest) and A. tomentosum Mart. (typical of cerrado) in order to elucidate the origin of the underground organ that produces resprouts, and the structural nature of buds responsible for vegetative propagation. Data resulting from this project will potentially help to understand the strategies of vegetative propagation of Aspidosperma and, more broadly, of the Apocynaceae family.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

KATAOKA, ERIC YASUO; ALVES, DANIELA MARTINS; KOCH, INGRID; SOUTO, LETICIA SILVA. Are there buds in the roots of Aspidosperma spp. (Apocynaceae)? A comparative morphoanatomical study of underground organs. FLORA, v. 256, p. 92-99, JUL 2019. (14/19175-8)