Acta Scientiarum http://www.uem.br/acta ISSN printed: 1679-9275 ISSN on-line: 1807-8621 Doi: 10.4025/actasciagron.v38i2.27976 Physiological and physical quality of local Araucaria angustifolia seed variety Marília Shibata1, Cileide Maria Medeiros Coelho2*, Cristhyane Garcia Araldi1, Natália Adan3 and 4 Nivaldo Peroni 1Programa de Pós-graduação em Recursos Genéticos Vegetais, Centro de Ciências Agrárias, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. 2Centro de Ciências Agroveterinárias, Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina, Avenida Luiz de Camões, 2090, 88520-000, Lages, Santa Catarina, Brazil. 3Centro Australiano para Pesquisa Ambiental Cultural, Universidade de Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. 4Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. *Author for correspondence. E-mail:
[email protected] ABSTRACT. Araucaria angustifolia seeds are the basis for the rural economy in southern Brazil, and the species presents different botanical varieties. The objective of this work was to evaluate the diversity of physical, physiological and biochemical characteristics of Araucaria angustifolia seeds from local varieties: ‘sancti josephi’, ‘angustifolia’, ‘caiova’, and ‘indehiscens’. Seeds were collected from the cities of Painel and Urubici in Santa Catarina State and tested for moisture content, 1000-seed weight, emergence, emergence speed index (ESI), root and shoot length, electrical conductivity, tetrazolium, soluble carbohydrates, and starch content. Among the varieties cited above, the angustifolia variety from Painel displayed a greater 1000-seed weight, ESI, electrical conductivity and shoot length. However, the sancti josephi variety displayed a lower emergence percentage, 1000-seed weight, ESI, root and shoot length, and carbohydrate content. In a cluster analysis, based on Euclidean distance, three groups constituting the sancti josephi, indehiscens, and caiova/angustifolia varieties were found.