AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF ORCHIDACEAE SPECIES FRUITS IN THE CENTRAL ZONE OF VERACRUZ STATE, MEXICO

The knowledge on Orchidaceae family fruits becomes useful in new studies, by helping to identify species that are not in flowering period and providing material for in vitro germination of orchid seeds. The hypothesis was that the number of orchid specimens with naturally pollinated fruits, from the central zone of the state of Veracruz, Mexico, would be more than the number of specimens that do not developed fruit naturally. The objectives of this work were: to record the flowering and fruiting periods, to characterize the orchid fruits pollinated naturally or manually. The fruit collection sites were located within the municipalities of Amatlán de los Reyes, Fortín and Tlaltetela. The work was performed between January 2019 and April 2022 (39 months). Ripe orchid fruits were collected. Morphometry was measured by recording weight (g), length (cm) and diameter of the central region (cm), complemented with a photographic record. The greatest fruit diversity of these orchids was observed and collected during the month of March. Forty-two species and their fruits were recorded, which were grouped into 8 subtribes and 32 genera. The genera with the highest number of species were: Epidendrum, Prosthechea and Oncidium, each with three species. Three species bloomed for 11 months: Platystele stenostachya, Specklinia digitale and S. tribuloides.  The minor and major fruiting periods correspond to Specklinia digitale and Trichocentrum stramineum, respectively. Given the fact that in all three sites studied the greatest number of species and fruits is associated with natural pollination (27 species, 113 fruits), which exceeds the number of manually pollinated species (15 species, 51 fruits), it is possible to suggest that the largest contingent inhabits environments still compatible with the natural process of their reproduction in these sites.