Growth-active gibberellins overcome the very slow shoot growth of Hancornia speciosa, an important fruit tree from the Brazilian “Cerrado”

Shoot elongation of Hancornia speciosa, an endangered tree from the Brazilian savannah “Cerrado”, is very slow, thus limiting nursery production of plants. Gibberellins (GAs) A1, A3, and A5, and two inhibitors of GA biosynthesis, trinexapac-ethyl and ancymidol were applied to shoots of Hancornia seedlings. GA1 and GA3 significantly stimulated shoot elongation, while GA5 had no significant effect. Trinexapac-ethyl and ancymidol, both at 100 µg per seedling, inhibited shoot elongation up to 45 days after treatment, though the effect was statistically significant only for ancymidol. Somewhat surprisingly, exogenous GA3 more effectively stimulated shoot elongation in SD-grown plants, than in LD-grown plants. The results from exogenous application of GAs and inhibitors of GA biosynthesis imply that Hancornia shoot growth is controlled by GAs, and that level of endogenous growth-active GAs is likely to be the limiting factor for shoot elongation in Hancornia. Application of GAs thus offer a practical method for nursery production of Hancornia seedlings for outplanting into the field.