Plastic responses in seedlings and young specimens of the native tree species Adelia membranifolia (Müll. Arg.) Paxt. & K. Hoffm. (Euphorbiaceae) and Peltophorum dubium (Spreng.) Taub. (Leguminosae-Caesalpinoidae), submitted to flooding and nutritional deficit, were studied. Surface increase on the expression module, defined as the region on the stem of the seedling which, under stress situations, undertakes re-differentiation, was measured. The lenticels hypertrophy is seen as its most common morphogenetic expression. In A. membranifolia, both for growth in height and stem diameter and for morphogenic expressions, the association of nutritional stress with flooding represented the most restrictive conditions. In P. dubium nutritional state was more restrictive than flooding for stem growth. In general, nourished plants of both species maintained in a flooded condition reestablished their growth rhythms starting from the third month of treatment, besides evidencing plastic responses such as lenticels hypertrophy and the formation of adventitious roots. In regards to surface increase in the undernourished lots, it was verified that in A. membranifolia, from a total of 38% of surface, 12% corresponded to lenticels hypertrophy. In P. dubium the greatest variation of surface increase by lenticels hypertrophy was observed, an increase from 5% to 13%. Generally, the modular surface in the flooded plants was twice as large when compared to the control group. It is possible that the surface increase, for some species, is significant as a trend towards improving growth stability due to physiological interactions.
expression module; flooding; lenticels; surface increase
