Characteristics of seeds of native grasses from "cerrado"

Some characteristics of seeds of 22 native grass species from cerrado regio n in Brazil, such as sterility, weight of full and empty seeds, possibility of ventilation and number of seeds per weight were evaluated. Species of t he genus Aristida, Ctenium, Diectiomis and Schizachyrium showed the highest levels of fertile spikelets (higher than 50%); Andropogon and Hypogynium s howed levels of fertile spikelets between 25-49%; whereas in Paspalum, Seta ria and Thrazya the occurrence of fertile spikelets varied from 5 to 24% an d in Axonopus it was lower than 5%. The average number of full seeds per gr am varied from 20 in Paspalum reduncum to almost 3,000 in Aristida gibbosa, which affects the rate of sowing. The seeds classified as "hairy", with wh ich the use of "de-awners" during processing is recommended, belonged to th e species: Andropogon bicornis, Andropogon selloanus, Aristida gibbosa, Ari stida recurvata, Aristida setifolia, Aristida torta, Ctenium cirrhosum, Die ctiomis fastigiata, Hypogynium virgatum, Paspalum pectinatum, Paspalum poly philum, Paspalum splendens, Paspalum stellatum and Schizachyrium microstach yum. The species classified as non "hairy", with which ventilation can be r ecommended, were: Axonopus barbigerus, Axonopus canescens, Paspalum gardner ianum, Paspalum pilosum, Paspalum reduncum, Paspalum trichostomum, Setaria geniculata and Thrasya glaziovii.