ABSTRACT
Among the suitable species for restoration of arboreal vegetation in degraded lands in the south of Minas Gerais, candeia trees (Eremanthus erythropappus (DC.) MacLeish) stand out because they occur and regenerate naturally in stony and poor sites. Besides, they have good attributes related to the natural durability of wood and the quality of essential oil for use in pharmacology. The success of restoration is related to the speed with which the vegetation is reestablished. Hence, the search for superior and adapted genotypes, which are able to colonize the area quickly, is of great economical and environmental importance. Open-pollinated seeds were collected from 27 mother trees in two distinct populations: São Tomé das Letras and Carrancas, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The germinated plantlets were arranged in a randomized block design with three replications containing seedling from the 27 open-pollinated progenies. After three months of seedling grown in containers, the genetic variation among and within seed populations was evaluated. The analyses of variance showed that there were significant differences among and within populations in stem diameter. Within São Tomé das Letras population, the variation among progenies was significant in diameter and, within Carrancas population, only in seedling height the variation was significant. However, a longer term of evaluation is required for the sake of genotype selection of candeia, since a large extent of the manifested variation in seedlings stage might be due to inheritance of maternal influences that will not be transmitted for the following generations.
Keywords:
degraded lands; genetic parameters; genotype selection