Aspectos etnobotânicos e taxonômicos de Araceae Juss. na comunidade Santa Maria, baixo Rio Negro - AM

Abstract

The species of the Araceae family has in the economic well-known to the man standing out for being used as medicinal plants, food, fibers, and mainly ornamental. The aerial roots of the species of Philodendron Schott and Heteropsis Kunth belonging to the family Araceae, has been used until now as a source of fiber for making baskets in the Amazon region. In the Lower rio Negro, Heteropsis flexuosa (Kunth) G.S. Bunting, known as "cipó-titica" is the species most used by the extractors as a source of fiber, while the genus Philodendron, many species used by the extractors for making handicrafts and other utensils. The overall objective of this study was to survey the species of the family Araceae with economic potential, used by the community Santa Maria, located on the left bank of rio Negro, in which its residents have a way of life composed primarily by fishing and farming family, complementing these activities with the collection of Non Timber Forest Products (NTFP`s). In order to collect ethnobotanical information tools were used as the "rapport" and "guided tours". The recording of information was based on semi-structured questionnaire and through informal conversations. The analysis of information was realized through the aggregation of uses. We found 51 species of Araceae distributed in 15 genera. The genus Philodendron was the most diverse with 22 species. In total, 23 useful species were identified, presenting among these uses for crafts, food, medicinal, ornamental and mystical. Among those who had higher use value were Philodendron solimoesense and Heteropsis flexuosa, species whose roots are used as a fiber source for making arts and crafts. Was detected using in crafts of another species of the family Araceae, Monstera obliqua Miq., known for artisans such as "ambé-sima". The treatment of these three taxonomic species which was taken into account the distribution, phenological data, and historical affinity of the specimens and details of the vegetative and reproductive structures of plants, which were illustrated in boards. It was also prepared containing an identification key with characteristics of internal and external morphology of the species. As for the anatomical study of leaf and root shoots of species, some were selected as diagnostic characters for taxonomy, such as type of stomata, type of crystals, the occurrence of latex, presence of hypodermis, the occurrence of sclerenchyma sheath fibers, so the central cylinder, among others. Also the study was made of the fibers of the roots, where the three species had long fiber type libriforme with thick walls and small lumens.