Seedlings and saplings of tree species of Leguminosae from São Paulo State, Brazil, were studied morphologically. This study was also carried out due to the scarce information about seedlings and saplings besides the importance of these data as a support for taxonomic, phylogenetic and ecological studies. The seedling and sapling development were observed daily in a germinator and greenhouse. Seedling morphology, cataphyll number, first eophyll differentiation time and their phyllotaxis, cotyledon abscision time, first metaphyll differentiation and radicular nodulation data are presented. The results showed the greatest seedling variation in Leguminosae. In this family, epigeal-foliaceous and epigeal-fleshy seedlings occurred in 80% of the studied species. In Caesalpinioideae, all seedlings were epigeal, 20% of these seedlings had fleshy cotyledons. In Mimosoideae, 66.7% of the species had epigeal-foliaceous seedlings, 22.2% epigeal-fleshy and 11.1% semi-hypogeal seedlings. Faboideae species exhibited two types of seedlings: 54.5% were epigeal-fleshy and 45.5% were hypogeal.
Leguminosae; morphology; seedling; sapling