Three-month-old Tabebuia avellanedae Lor. ex Griseb. (Bignoniaceae) plants cultivated in the greenhouse were submitted to 56 days of flooding and to "Ethrel" and silver nitrate applications to find out it’s capacity for morphological and physiological modifications to survive under flooding conditions and at which degree such responses were correlated with alterations in the ethylene level. Flooding and the "Ethrel" application caused growth reduction and epinasty in T. avellanedae and the application of silver nitrate lessened some these symptoms. Certain symptoms shown during flooding by this species and its ability to develop structures which lessen hypoxia effects, such as stem fissures and hypertrophied lenticels in the roots, modifications which enable the species to adapt to short flooding periods, could be related to increases in the ethylene concentration in the plant tissues.
Flood tolerance; Ethrel; Tabebuia avellanedae
