Morphological description of the fruit and seed of Yucca thompsoniana Trel. and implications for its conservation
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Abstract
Yucca thompsoniana (Thompson’s Yucca) is an endemic species that grows in arid and semi-arid ecosystems in northern Mexico and is distributed in the states of Chihuahua and Coahuila. Currently this species is used for ornamental purposes without any official regulation to such an extent that it has been classified in the category of least concern (LC) according to the Red List of threatened species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, for the above, it is important to use mechanisms or strategies for conservation both in situ and ex situ. The objective of this research was to characterize the fruits and seeds of Yucca thompsoniana Trel., through the morphological description of the variables length, width, thickness and weight of fruits and seeds, as well as the percentage of full or empty seeds per fruit. Descriptive statistics were performed on each of the variables considering frequency distribution, measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion. The results found in this study show that the seeds of Y. thompsoniana have the following dimensions: length of 8.24 mm, width of 7.35 mm, thickness of 2.28 mm, weight of 0.045 g and 22,222 seeds kg-1. The seeds are black. The fruits recorded a length of 51.2 mm, width of 24.2 mm, thickness of 21.2 mm and a weight of 9.8 g. Of the total seeds obtained, 60.03% were full seeds and 39.97% were empty seeds. Seed size can play an important role, since, in drought conditions, species with larger seeds have greater germination.
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