Abstract

PONCE CALDERON, María Elena. Patrones de caída de frutos en Mauritia Flexuosa L.F. Y fauna involucrada  en los procesos de remoción de semillas. Acta Bot. Venez. [online]. 2002, vol.25, n.2, pp.119-142. ISSN 0084-5906.

Astudy was carried out on the fruit-fall patterns of Mauritia flexuosa (moriche) in the southeast region of Guárico State, during a period of two years. Its purpose was to establish if the physionomic and floristic characteristics in open morichal, closed morichal and evergreen forest communities with contrasting ligth conditions, influenced fruiting phenology, as well as percentage of seeds removed by disperser. The results show coincidence between the phenophase of ripening and fruit fall with maximum rainfall. Such a situation takes place over a short period. The fauna involved in the seed dispersal process showed a generalist and opportunistic behavior and a clear preference for removing the resource all the year, depending on the habitat features and the isolate condition of the palm with respect to the remainder on the individuals of the same sex.

Keywords : Moriche palm; Mauritia flexuosa; fruit fall; seeds remotion; dispersers; Guárico; Venezuela.