Leguminous seeds are common targets for mechanical injury, many times invisible to the human eye. Because of this, it was found necessary to utilize tests, such as the X-ray test, which makes possible the evaluation of this type of injury. The objectives of this project were: to verify the efficiency of the X-ray tests in relationship with physical damage to canafistula seed, to verify the effect of this damage to germination and also to evaluate the regularity that machine should be used. Seeds collected in Lavras-MG in 1986 and 1998, and Lins-SP in 1998 were utilized. Seeds from three groups were placed in an acrylic support with 100 partitions and exposed to radiation for various amounts of time and intensity, utilizing equipment 43855 A X-Ray System (Faxitron-HP). Four partitions of 100 seeds were used for each group. The seeds were divided into three categories according to their internal anatomy visualized by radiographs in full seeds, seeds with little physical damage and seeds with severe physical damage. Subsequently, seed dormancy was broken and then submitted to germination tests. The results obtained provided that a time of 60 seconds and an intensity of 25 KVp allowed the brighter internal visualization of seeds. Severe internal damage detected by radiographs might effect the germination of canafístula seeds, and its justify the remotion of those seeds to improve the physical and physiological quality of canafístula lots.
image analysis; seed forest
