Fabaceae is the most representative of the Brazilian Caatinga, comprising about one-third of species richness cataloged. Existing research on the biodiversity of this biome reveal several endemic and endangered plant species. In this sense, we aim to establish standards morphological types of fruits, seeds and embryos, with special focus on plumule, to enable the identification of some of the typical or endemic species of the Caatinga. Tours were conducted from March 2006 to March 2008 to collect botanical material in Mirandiba, priority area for research due to insufficient information on its flora and fauna. We selected 16 species, representing 25% of total species collected in the area. Were cataloged six types of fruit, where the standard type was the legume. The seeds without pleurogram prevailed, in the same way that the funiculus filiform, invaginated embryo and hypocotyl-radicle axis with straight patterns were found for these structures. The pattern plumule on differentiated eophylls was the most common. The most common dispersion syndrome was the autochory followed by zoochory. The main propagules are seeds, however, the fruits types baccoid pod, camara, samaroid pod and samara or the monospermic article of the craspedium can assume this role. As the successful germination and seedling establishment is associated with the size and quantity of seed reserve is quite likely that the degree of differentiation of the plumule is another aspect to be investigated in relation to their role in the success of seedling establishment.
dispersal; diversity; morphology; plumule; taxonomy
