Abstract
ATTENTION has been directed1 to the presence of certain peculiar branched rods of opaline silica in the leaves of Nardus stricta and in the soils on which this species grows. Although transverse sections of leaves of N. stricta figured by Grob2 and Hegi3 show what are apparently the minute hat-like opals which we have detected even in the very young leaves, we have found no reference depicting or describing the branched rods which we detect in surface preparations of older leaves after rendering them transparent, for example, by controlled treatment with chromic acid (Fig. 1). The branched cells which secrete these bodies, although not present in the seedling leaves, develop later on the well-marked ribs of the upper surface (Figs. 2 and 3), and their protruding portions can be identified with what have been described as asperities4 or papillæ2. The protrusions tend to be longest near the crest of the rib, diminishing laterally to give every gradation from well-branched to unbranched long cells (Figs. 4 and 5).
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References
Smithson, F., J. Soil Sci., 9, 148 (1958).
Grob, A., Bib. Bot., 7, No. 36, 1 (1896–97).
Hegi, G., “Illustrierte Flora von Mittel-Europa”, 1, 478 (Munich, 1935).
Burr, S., and Turner, D. M., “British Economic Grasses”, 78 (Edward Arnold, London, 1933).
Stebbins, G. L., Amer. J. Bot., 43, 895 (1956).
Parry, D. W., and Smithson, F., Nature, 179, 975 (1957); Ann. Bot., 22, 543 (1958).
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PARRY, D., SMITHSON, F. Silicification of Branched Cells in the Leaves of Nardus stricta L.. Nature 182, 1460–1461 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/1821460b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1821460b0
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