Seed viability of Sebastiania commersoniana (Baill.) Smith & Downs (Euphorbiaceae) by the tetrazolium test

Abstract

With the objective of finding the best conditions to test the viability of Sebastiania commersoniana seeds by means of the tetrazolium (TZ) test, an experiment was set up in which the seeds of three lots were submitted to two pre-conditioning periods (3 and 5 hours) at 30 ºC, four TZ solution concentrations (0.05, 0.075, 0., and 0.2%) and two periods of immersion of the seeds in the TZ solution (2 and 4 hours). The results of the TZ tests were compared to those of a standard germination test and this showed the combination of a pre-conditioning period of 3 h, a 0.% concentration TZ solution and an immersion period of the seeds in the TZ solution of 2 hours will yield the best results. A 0.05% TZ solution would require an immersion period of 4 hours. In addition to this the external and the internal morphology of the seeds were described.Additional keywords: physiological quality; forest seed; fast test; morphology.