The objective of this work was to classify seeds of forest trees regarding storage behaviour and to verify the relation between the classification proposed and the ecological groups of these species. For this study 39 species from remnants of riparian forest from the high and medium Rio Grande-MG were evaluated. The seed viability and the moisture content were obtained from seeds after cleaning; from seeds with the initial moisture content submitted to the storage with semi-permeable packing at temperature of 5ºC for 90 days; and from dry seeds submitted to desiccation before and after storage in impermeable packing for 90 days at temperatures of 5ºC and -18ºC. The statistical analysis was performed by comparison of the overlap of the confidence intervals of the germination percentage averages for each species. The seeds were classified as orthodox and recalcitrant according to storage behavior. The seeds classified as orthodox were from the following species: Alchornea triplinervea, Anadenanthera colubrina, Aspidosperma cylindrocarpon, Aspidosperma polyneuron, Bowdichia virgilioides, Ceiba speciosa, Hymenaea courbaril, Lafoensia pacari, Lecythis pisonis, Lithraea molleoides, Maclura tinctoria, Myroxylon peruiferum, Myrsine umbellata, Rudgea viburnoides, Schinus terebinthifolius, Solanum granuloso-leprosum, Tabebuia crysotricha. The seeds that showed recalcitrant storage behaviour were from the species: Calophyllum brasiliense, Calyptranthes lucida, Cupania vernalis, Eugenia handroana, and Talauma ovata. The species classified as orthodox belonged to the ecological groups pioneer, climax light demanding to seedling growth and climax shade tolerant. The species classified as recalcitrant belonged to the ecological groups climax shade tolerant and climax light demanding.
conservation; forest species; ecological groups
