The objective of this study was to determine the optimum germination temperature for seeds of the Erythrina variegata L. The experiments were carried out at the Seed Analysis Laboratory at CCA-UFES (Laboratório de Análise de Sementes of CCA-UFES) in Alegre-ES. The seeds were placed in plastic seed germination containers (gerbox), with sterilized sand as the substrate. Random samples of 25 seeds each were incubated separately at constant temperature of 12ºC, 14ºC, 16ºC, 18ºC, 20ºC, 22ºC, 24ºC, 26ºC, 28ºC, 30ºC, 32ºC, 34ºC, 36ºC, 38ºC and 40ºC, with 8-hour photoperiod. This procedure was repeated four times to obtain a meaningful result. It was found that E. variegata seeds have a broad range of temperature tolerance with seed germination observed between 14ºC and 38ºC. Temperatures between 22ºC and 36ºC seemed most favorable with germination in excess of 67%. Temperatures between 32ºC and 34ºC produced the optimum average rate and time for germination. The highest percentage of E. variegata seed germination was found to be at the temperature of 34ºC.
Tropical species; thermal stress; plant propagation
