Ecological significance of wood anatomy of Alseis pickelii Pilg. & Schmale (Rubiaceae) in a Tropical Dry Forest

Abstract

This work describes, analyzes and compares the wood anatomy of Alseis pickelii from two distinct sites in Tropical Dry Forest. One site is an exploited forest that was disturbed by deforestation whereas the other site is preserved and has not been logged since selective logging in the 1960's. For the evaluation of wood anatomy, plant material was processed following standard techniques for light microscopy and histochemical tests. The results indicated that A. pickelii did not vary qualitatively between the two sites. The histochemical tests indicated the presence of prismatic crystals and starch in radial parenchyma of samples from both sites. Some quantitative parameters differed significantly between the two sites including: vessel frequency; vessel length and lumina area; intervessel pits; diameter, lumina, length and wall thickness of fibres; and radial parenchyma width. In general, these quantitative parameters had higher values in the samples from the exploited site, suggesting an adjustment to the more severe drought conditions there. Quantitative anatomical differences in the samples from the two sites show the influence that environmental conditions can have on wood anatomy. The observed anatomical characteristics may also be useful for taxonomic and ecological studies of this species and genus.

Wood anatomy of Korean Symplocos Jacq. (Symplocaceae)

“…Only a few morphological differences displayed by S. coreana with S. tanakana, and S. sawafutagi include broadly obovate leaf lamina with coarsely serrate margin and bluish black fruit color instead of usually narrower, obovate to oblong leaf lamina with small and incurved toothed margin and bluish or black fruit (Ohwi, 1965;Chang et al, 2011;Kim and Kim, 2018). It has been suggested that some quantitative variations in the wood anatomical structures can be influenced by the growing conditions of the plant species (Baas, 1973;Carlquist, 2001;Campbell et al, 2016). Symplocos sawafutagi and S. tanaka which were collected form Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do and Shinan-gun, Jeollanam-do, respectively, preferably grow deep in the forest with low sunlight whereas S. coreana which was collected form Miaksan, Seogwip-si, Jeju-do (in Korea this species only found in Jeju-do) usually prefer the edge of the forest with high sunlight.…”

Multivariate Analysis of the Stem Anatomical Characters of Terminalia L. (Combretaceae) in Egypt

“…This general description of wood elements is typical to this study; however, they naturally differ in the quantitative dimensions of wood elements: vessel diameter range, vessel frequency, ray width, and ray height ranges. The variations of some wood characters of the studies may be anticipated to the ecological influences (Campbell et al, 2016).…”

Comparative Vessel Traits of Macaranga Gigantea and Vatica Dulitensis From Malaysian Borneo

“…Nonetheless, to our knowledge, there has been no study comparing vessel traits between representative species of logged and unlogged tree communities. Campbell et al (2016Campbell et al ( , 2018 analysed differences in vessel characteristics between logged and undisturbed forests in the Brazilian dry and wet tropics; however, both studies focused on a single tree species only. There is a gap of knowledge comparing wood anatomical traits between species of old-growth and selectively logged tree communities.…”