"Erva-mate" (Ilex paraguariensis A. St.-Hill.) is native to South America and has great economic importance due to its consumption as tea; it has also been studied in pharmacology and biotechnology. However, this species has low propagation ability, either sexually or not. One of the main effects of maturation is the loss of rooting ability; thus, this paper aimed to verify the influence of rejuvenation and application of indolebutyric acid (IBA) on the rooting of stem cuttings from "erva-mate". Cuttings were obtained using sprouts of the year from 13-year-old trees and rejuvenated sprouts from stump regrowth of 17-year-old trees. Cuttings were treated with IBA solution at the following concentrations: 0, 1500, 300, 4500 and 6000 mg L-1, resulting in 5 treatments for each cutting type. Planting was done in plastic containers filled with vermiculite and carbonized rice bark at 1:1 proportion. After 90 days in greenhouse, cuttings were evaluated for the following variables: percentage of cuttings with roots, number of roots/cutting, length of the three largest roots/cutting, and percentage of live cuttings, those with callus and dead ones. Statistical analysis indicated that the rejuvenated material had the best results concerning percentage of cuttings with root, and number and length of roots. The application of synthetic auxin did not influence the rooting of cuttings from neither type, so that IBA treatments did not differ statistically.
cutting; indolebutyric acid; rejuvenation
