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Taxonomic significance of leaf anatomy of Aniselytron (Poaceae) as an evidence to support its generic validity against Calamagrostis s. l.

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Abstract

A comparative study of leaf anatomy on Aniselytron Merr. and Calamagrostis Adans. s. l. was conducted to review the systematic status of Aniselytron Merr. Calamagrostis s. l. exhibits wide variation in many features, but basic leaf structures of the genus remain constant: absence of a midrib-keel; median and large vascular bundles are central, with double sheaths, accompanied by girders both adaxially and abaxially; prickles have a bulbous base and are not sunken; the abaxial epidermal cells are short and wide and relatively thick-walled. Aniselytron differs from Calamagrostis s. l. in: midrib-keel is present, consisting of a large central bundle with small ones on either side; all vascular bundles are abaxially situated, with abaxial girders only, parenchyma takes the place of the adaxial sclerenchyma; the bases of the prickles are sunken and are not bulbous; the abaxial epidermal cells are tall and thin-walled. These distinct anatomical features, in combination with the differences in spikelet structure and habitat, suggest that Aniselytron should be generically separated from and not merged with Calamagrostis s. l. Due to the adaxial parenchyma in the midrib which has never been found in Pooideae, Aniselytron might have a relationship with some other subfamily.

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Notes

  1. Vascular bundles are classified into three types according to the size and structure. The first-order bundles are large, with conspicuous metaxylem vessels and exhibiting varying degrees of sclerosis of the phloem. The second-order bundles refer to those with one or two metaxylem vessels. The third-order bundles are small bundles containing no conspicuously large metaxylem vessels, and xylem and phloem are not easy to distinguish from one another in transverse section. There is no essential difference between the first and the second order vascular bundles and they are often referred as large vascular bundles, and the third-order bundles are referred as small vascular bundles.

  2. There are various terms to describe sclerenchyma. Girder is used when the sclerenchyma extends from the epidermis on its outer surface to the bundle-sheath on its inner surface. Strand is applied to sclerenchyma of which the outer surface rests against the epidermis but does not penetrate sufficiently deeply to make contact with the bundle-sheath on its inner surface. Hypodermal strand is to describe the sclerenchyma which is situated between two vascular bundles and makes contact with epidermal cells on one surface. Sclerenchyma cells in leaf margin have no special term.

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Acknowledgements

The financial support of NSFC (30070051 and 40332021), NSFYN (2000C0069 M) and MOST (2003CB415103) are gratefully acknowledged. Our thanks are also to Prof. Hang Sun and Mr. Lisong Wang of Kunming Institute of Botany (KUN) for their help in the fieldwork. We are also indebted to curators of PE, MBK and US for loaning their specimens, and to Dr. Hiroyuki Motomura of Tohoku University of Japan and Dr. Wenli Chen of PE for providing their literature collections. Special thanks go to Dr. Robert J. Soreng of Smithsonian Institution for improvements to the manuscript and to Mr. Martyn Dickson of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh for editing English. We are also very grateful to two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments.

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Correspondence to Hua Peng.

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Ma, HY., Peng, H. & Li, DZ. Taxonomic significance of leaf anatomy of Aniselytron (Poaceae) as an evidence to support its generic validity against Calamagrostis s. l.. J Plant Res 118, 401–414 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-005-0236-0

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