Bignoniaceae Juss. na Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável do Tupé: Organografia

Abstract

Bignoniaceae Juss. includes ca. 110 genera and 800 species distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. It is frequently reported as one of the most important families in terms of species richness in neotropical regions. In Brazil there are 32 genera and 391 species and in the North 26 genera and 190 species. Their greatest diversity is in the habit lianescente species of plants with ascending the treetops, being an important element in the canopy of the forest, very useful as connecting between them and important to the local wildlife, but making the collection of fertile material more difficult. Although having such a large representation in the North, there are only a few studies on the morphology and anatomy of the group. Therefore one undertook the collection of data of the flower family on Sustainable Development Reserve Tupé - Manaus / AM, in order to identify and describe in detail the external and internal morphology of the species of Bignoniaceae, and present a key to identification with morphological and anatomical characters, pictorial diagrams and comments on diagnostic of, flowering and fruiting phenomenon knowledge and distribution and anatomical characters of the petiole, limbo and midrib that help to identify of sterile material and that proved to be very informative to recognize the studied species. Therefore botanical material was collected in four tracks at the Tupé Reserve in two types of environments, upland and flooded forest by monthly excursions during the period from 2002 to 2004 and biweekly from August 2011 to December 2012. Sixteen species were given the taxonomic treatment, and of these 12 were also analyzed concerning their anatomical structures. Vegetative and reproductive characters such as appearance and filling the branches, presence of glands and coverage of limbo and inter petiole regions, morphology of the pseudo stipules, apexes of tendrils, pubescence of the corolla were good characters to distinguish the species of Bignoniaceae and quite diagnostic in some cases. The most representative were Mansoa and Handroanthus, with three species each. The occurrence of H. riodocensis in Tupé Reserve is new record for the state of Amazon and in the North Brazil, there are six other new records for the Tupé Reserve. Concerning the characteristics of the leaves, the anatomy of the internal structures were more informative, such as the cross-sectional shape, the presence or not of a hollow spine the presence of the midrif vascular bundle and organization of the fibers in relation to the vascular system and proved to be satisfactory in differentiation of the species. On the other hand for the limbo it is noteworthy, the number of layers of epidermal cells and cuticle thickness, types of stomata, the number of layers of palisade parenchyma, presence of trichomes, although all observed patterns are quite common in Bignoniaceae. Furthermore, the arrangement of fibers and sclereides tissues in the subepidermal regions of the midrib were useful in the separation of species, as well as the thickness of the cuticle and epidermal ornamentation.