Abstract

The objective of the study was to make observations on the protophylls of tacaco seedlings. 50 tacaco seeds were sown, and the protophylls of the emerged seedlings were evaluated, up to 91 days after sowing. Protophylls with one, two, three, four, five, six and seven lobes each were found. This is the first notice about the existence of heteroblasty (different number of lobes) in tacaco protophylls; this could illustrate the recent evolutive changes of this species.

Keywords Botany; cucurbitaceae; leaf; morphology; stem