Propagación ex situ del hobo Spondias mombin L (Plantas: Anacardiaceae), especie amenazada de la Orinoquia como estrategia de conservación

Abstract

Spondias mombin is a species of commercial importance, mainly for its use as processed wood, increasing its timber value, causing deforestation and environmental impacts such as the loss of food resources for wildlife, as it is an important element in the diet of most of the frugivores and omnivores, especially mammals; this is a contribution to the conservation and prevention of soil erosion and regulation of the water cycle. The intention of this project was to search for adequate methods of ex situ propagation of the tree known as Hobo -Spondias mombin, a vulnerable species from the Colombian Orinoquía, and which presents great challenges for its conservation given the strong and prolonged dormancy of the seeds (between 160 -490 days) that hinders its propagation ex situ. In this study, techniques were implemented that allowed evaluating the viability of the seed embryo and starting a monitoring process to evaluate the effectiveness of pregerminative treatments as a means to break the prolonged dormancy of the seeds. Three (3) phases were developed that included the search for seed sources in Villavicencio and nearby municipalities, the collection of dasometric data from the mother plants, the performance of embryonic viability tests with the tetrazolium staining test, the determination of the content of seed moisture, and the assembly of pre-germination treatments to determine their effect on the germination percentage and the speed of seed germination. Regarding the results, 13 individuals of Spondias mombin registered as seed sources were obtained. No statistically significant differences were found between the means of the dasometric variables and the weight (ANOVA) in seed samples from Villavicencio and Guamal. The viability of the seeds according to the terazolium staining test was low, with 0.6% of viable seeds in Villavicencio and 2% for Guamal. No significant differences were found in the moisture content of seeds from the 2 provenances. Regarding the germination of the seeds, this was extremely low with an emergence of 0.0024 of the total number of seeds treated with the different pre-germination methods applied, for a monitoring period of only 60 days. The interaction between seed morphometry, embryo viability and seed viability reported for a period of 60 days is discussed. It is recommended to continue with the monitoring process of pre-germination treatments for a period of at least 1 year, to evaluate their effect on the entire spectrum of germination reported for the species. The combination of previous bibliographic results with the data of this study, allowed to define a management protocol for the species in the nursery with a view to its massive ex situ propagation.