Biomass yield of Calendula officinalis L. as a function of diaspores shapes and chicken manure

The capitula of Calendula officinalis L., Asteraceae, had flowers with sexual dimorphism and achenes (diaspores) of winged, navicular, winged orbicular and orbicular shapes. With the objective of studying the effect of four diaspore shapes and the use (5t/ha) or not of semi-decomposed chicken manure as cover on calendula biomass yield, an experiment was carried out at Horto of Medicinal Plants of Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, in Dourados-MS, from April to September, 1999. Treatments were arranged in a 4x2 factorial scheme in a complete randomized blocks, with four replications. Diaspores from plants cultivated at the same Horto, in the previous year, were sowed on plastic trays. The emergence of plants was 65.0%; 59.0%; 71.7% and 55.8%, respectively, for winged, navicular, winged orbicular and orbicular shapes. At 15 days after transplant, the measurement of plant height was taken at regular intervals of 15 days, until 90 days of the cycle. In that period, harvest was done and fresh matter of aerial parts, capitula and ripe and unripe fruits were evaluated. As well as fruit yield (%) of those four shapes was evaluated. Plant growth in height was linear in the studied period and heights at 90 days of the cycle were around 40cm, the highest was from plants with winged diaspores, on which was used chicken manure as cover. Fresh matter yields of aerial parts (343.30 to 423.73g/plant), floral capitula (37.00 to 52.54g/plant), unripe fruits (25.62 to 34.95g/plant) and ripe fruits (1.33 to 2.22g/plant) were not influenced significantly by diaspore shapes nor by chicken manure. Regarding to the shape of produced diaspore, orbicular and winged orbicular - used in sowing - resulted in uniform percentages of four shapes and naviculars and winged resulted in higher percentages of their own shapes, that is 34 % and 36 %,respectively.