4.1.2. Botanical Aspects

*B. gaudichaudii* can be found as shrub, tree or bush, reaching up to 4 m in height. Roots are terrestrial and gemiferous, that is, with the ability to sprout and generate new plants, a strategy of survival to common fires that occur in the Cerrado region, they form a root system, composed of a main root to which longitudinal roots that grow in di fferent directions are anchored. The stem is aerial, erect and of the trunk type, with sympodial growth; leaves are glabrous on the adaxial surface and may present glandular trichomes on the abaxial epidermis, phyllotaxis is alternate, with simple and petiolate leaves, with oblong, oblong-lanceolate or elliptical shape, obtuse to acuminate apex, oblique base, entire margins of the limb, wavy or serrated, with camptodrome-like peninerval venation, that is, secondary venation do not end at the margin [83].

It blooms between the months of June and October; inflorescences are monopodial, bisexual, ear-like, globose, composed of 30 to 100 flowers, which are pedunculated, aclamidic, diclinic, monoic, that is, they present unisexual female and male flowers in the same individual, and staminate flowers are protected by bracteole. They have green to yellowish color, with gamocarpelar gynoecium and unilocular ovary [89,90].

*B. gaudichaudii* fruits are edible, drupe type, fleshy, with about 2 to 4 cm in diameter, globose, monospermic, and should be harvested between the months of September and November. Each fruit contains an ellipsoid seed, whitish in color, considered recalcitrant, as it is not viable after drying. The embryo has two fleshy cotyledons and fills the entire seed volume. Regarding shape and size, these cotyledons have starch, protein, and lipid reserves. They have short and swollen hypocotyl located below the point of insertion of cotyledons [82].
