STORAGE OF SILK FLOWER SEEDS [Calotropis procera (AITON) WT AITON]

Calotropis procera (Aiton) W.T. Aiton - Apocynaceae (silk-flower) is an important species for several usages: ornamental, forage, timber, textile and medicine, that justify its study. We investigated the physiological behavior and the vigor of seeds under different storage conditions. There were performed monthly evaluations of germination, seedling emergence, speed of emergence, seedling length and weight of seedling dry matter, during 180 days. Experimental design was completely randomized with a 6x5x3x2 factorial, using combinations of six storage periods (30, 60, 90, 120, 150 e 180 days), five moisture contents (30, 24, 18, 12 e 7%), three package types (paper bags, plastic bags and PET bottles) and two environmental conditions (chamber: 16 degrees C a 18 degrees C and laboratory: 27 degrees C a 30 degrees C, both environments with 50 +/- 5%) with four replications of 50 seeds. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance using F (p <= 0.05) test to treatments and Tukey test for averages comparison, with polynomial regression analysis considering the storage periods. There were concluded that silk flower seeds presented orthodox physiological behavior; the vigor decreased when stored for 180 days; silk flower seeds with 7% moisture content are preserved efficiently in paper bags and controlled environment for 90 days.