Foliar phytoliths as an aid to the identification of Paniceae (Panicoideae: Poaceae) grasses in South India

Abstract

Foliar phytolith studies were carried out in 13 genera including 29 commonly occurring species of the tribe Paniceae of the subfamily Panicoideae (Family: Poaceae) to determine the variations that exist in the phytolith characters, thereby assessing their value in identifying the species. Phytoliths were studied intact in epidermal peeling and also after isolation in acid medium. The members of the tribe were observed to produce a wide variety of lobate phytoliths including bilobate simple type, bilobate nodular, trilobate and polylobate. Ridged bilobate phytoliths produced by certain genera like Digitaria, Echinochloa and Sacciolepis are characteristic of the subfamily. Saddle shapes were not observed in any of the taxa under study. Shapes of phytoliths in the costal regions, their size, intercostal short cell silicification, nature of outer margins, presence of different appendages like papilla, microhairs, macrohairs and prickle hairs are important characters observed in epidermal peeling. Frequency percentages of different phytolith types occurring in isolated samples were also found to be reliable for taxonomic use. A key is prepared for the identification of all the 29 species studied. This could facilitate the identification of the taxa in the vegetative stage itself even when the spikelets are not available.

The use of taxonomic studies to the identification of wetlands weeds

“…Foliar epidermal anatomy study of A. donax, P. monspeliensis, Phragmites karka, C. dactylon, and D. annulatum show similar stomata type paracytic types with the recent study of (Khan et al, 2017) working on family Poaceae. E. colona have tetragonal epidermal cells in our finding while (Ferreira et al, 2002;Jattisha, Sabu, 2015) studied showed that the species had wavy cells. The shape of epidermal cells in P. major in our study showed polygonal shape, while in the study of (Ahmad (Lan et al, 2008) leaf epidermal anatomy of R. scleratus was irregular to polygonal while in our study the shape of the cells is wavy.…”

Scanning electron and light microscopy of foliar epidermal characters: A tool for plant taxonomists in the identification of grasses

“…Shaheen et al () also carried out studies on the epidermal leaf morphology of 5 species of genus Setaria ( S.glauca, S.italica, S. tomentosa, S. verticillata, and S. viridis ) with Light and SEM microscope and found significant variation within the species useful in the systematic delimitation of problematic taxa like Setaria . Jattisha and Sabu () also reported that taxonomic importance of foliar phytoliths in the identification of grasses in South India. From all previous work it is well established that foliar anatomy and epidermal features are very important in grass systematics and has significant utilization for characterization of broad groups, within subfamilies, tribes and delimitation of species.…”

Characterisation of Phytolith Production and Their Taxonomic Use among Five Species of Aristida

“…The genus is characterized by the production of large sized bilobate forms with long or very long shanks according to the size based classification provided in our previous paper [7]. Gallego & Distel (2004) [8] reported similar observations in A. subulata. Aristida being a species growing in sub arid regions, presence of long shanks and large sized phytoliths can be attributed to grasses growing in semi arid regions.…”