This study aimed at describing the reproductive plants in a population of Butia capitata, and evaluating the phenological and biological aspects of reproduction. The study area, locally named "Restinga", is of a coastal sandy shrub like vegetation, located at Laguna (SC, Brazil). A total of 215 plants was registered in a sampling area of 2500m2. The average height of these palms was 86.39 cm (S= 27.39; min= 1 and max= 311). Plants with heights equal or below 20 cm did not present reproduction traits . The percentage of reproductive plants increased in the larger sized classes. However, not all the plants in the reproductive phase flower in subsequent years. The parameters, heights and number of leaves, beside the height and length of leaf blade and number of leaves and inflorescences, were positively correlated. Flowering occurs during the spring and summer, with a peak in November and December. B. capitata showed a protandric pattern of reproduction. The duration of the male phase per inflorescence was 7.95 days and of the female one 3.95 days. An interval of 2.45 days was observed between these phases. The simultaneous occurrence of inflorescences in the male phase and in the female phase, in a same palm, was rare in the population, this fact favouring xenogamic polinization. Fruit maturation occurred from November to May, with a peak in February (summer). B. capitata produced 1 to 6 inflorescences/plant. The fruit supply during seven months, the high density of this palm, and the great proportion of reproductive plants in the population, characterize B. capitata as a food resource for frugivorous animal and human populations in coastal zones.
Butia capitata; phenology; reproduction; sandy coastal vegetation
