Phenology of tree species of Tillandsia (Bromeliaceae), in a cerrado fragment in Southeastern Brazil.

Abstract

Phenological studies aim to characterize repetitive biological events. Bromeliaceae has been important to thisunderstanding. In a cerrado area, South eastern of São Paulo State, fortnightly during one year, five bromeliadindividuals of each specie, Tillandsia tenuifolia, T. pohliana and T. tricholeps, was monitored. It was registered theflowering, fruiting and vegetative phase in addition to records about dispersion types, seed dispersers and selfincompatibilitytest. All bromeliads species were characterized as epiphytic and with anemocoric dispersal. Althoughthere was an intraspecific variation for some phenological events such as in flowering and in fruiting, there was atendency to sequential flowering pattern for the studied bromeliads populations. Just T. tenuifolia was the only specievisited by pollinators agents, was not self-pollinated.