Guibourtia hymenifolia (Moric.) J. Leonard (Fabaceae) is a timber great potential tree species, with occurrence in seasonal deciduous and semideciduous forests in Serra da Bodoquena, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. It was described and illustrated in this paper, the morphological aspects of fruit, seeds and development of seedlings and saplings of G. hymenifolia. The fruit is a dehiscent unyspermic legume. The seed is elliptic, orange colored with the presence of whitish funiculus aril. It was obtained 66% of germination in a germination chamber, and the initial morphology of the seedlings was epigeos phanerocotyledonary, with fleshy cotyledons. Seedlings and saplings presented changing of phylotaxis, with two opposite and alternate, petiolate and bifoliolate metaphylls. Eophylls and metaphylls present pinnate, camptodromous, brochidodromous venation pattern. These results can be used to identify the species in taxonomic studies and they allow the identification of seedlings in natural regeneration studies.
Natural regenaration; Germination; Venation pattern
