Leaf morphology and anatomy of 7 varieties of Ficus deltoidea (Moraceae)

Abstract

IntroductionFicus deltoidea Jack (Moraceae), locally known as 'Mas Cotek' among the Malays, is a complex species of subgen. Ficus, section Ficus, and subsect. Frutescentiae Sata (Sata, 1944), which contains more than 25 species available in the Sino-Himalayan and western Malesia regions (Berg, 2003). Among the many species, the most important are the trees with milky latex that contain important ingredients used in traditional medicine and Ayurvedic formulations (Babu et al., 2010). Ficus deltoidea is native and widely distributed throughout Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Moluccas (USDA, 2007). The plant is often recognized by its unique syconia (figs), midrib dichotomous, golden dots on the upper surface of the lamina, leafy twigs or periderm not persistent, and milky latex. In Malay traditional medicine, the dried leaves are marketed as an herbal tea. The decoction of the leaves is believed to improve blood circulation and have aphrodisiac activity and antioxidant and antidiabetic properties (Norhaniza et al., 2007;Sulaiman et al., 2008;Adam et al., 2011).The 7 varieties of Ficus deltoidea, namely var. deltoidea Corner, var. angustifolia (Miq.) Corner, var. trengganuensis Corner, var. bilobata Corner, var. intermedia Corner, var. kunstleri (King) Corner, and var. motleyana (Miq.) Corner, found in the Malay Peninsula of Malaysia were described by Kochummen (1978). Despite their close morphological similarity, it is argued that several morphological and anatomical characters are variety-specific and useful for varietal identification. Both qualitative and quantitative morphological characters of leaves (shape, length, surface texture, midrib dichotomous, gland densities at the forked midrib, and subsequent dichotomies of the midrib, petiole length, and indumentum densities) and anatomical characters (lamina, leaf epidermis, and midrib) are particularly discriminative. However, the leaf morphology is probably the most variable and shows heterophylly in the species (Nashriyah et al., 2012). The young plants and mature plants of the same variety often display different states of leaf characters. These extreme variations and unclear boundaries between varieties create misleading identifications of F. deltoidea varieties.The anatomy of the leaf was first used for systematic reasons by Duval-Jouve (1875), who stressed the usefulness of epidermal structures in plant taxonomy. The study of the foliar epidermis of Ficus L. revealed a number of important anatomical characters that are of taxonomic significance (Sonibare et al., 2006). The epidermis contains 3 main cell types, namely pavement cells, guard cells, and subsidiary cells, which surround the trichomes and stomata. Although the importance of foliar epidermal anatomy for classification has been discussed in detail by Abstract: The extreme morphological variations and unclear boundaries between varieties can lead to the misleading identification of Ficus deltoidea Jack (Moraceae) varieties. This has encouraged many taxonomists and botan...

Multivariate discrimination of selected taxa of the Fabaceae family

“…Principal Component Analysis (PCA) score plots are a good model for identifying species based on their chemical contents in their studies, quality control, and discrimination of three Curcuma species with the aid of metabolomics (Xiang et al 2011). Moreover, in agreement with the findings on Ficus deltoidea discrimination in Peninsular Malaysia, they report variation (Intra and inter) among similar species of the same cultivar (Fatihah et al 2014).…”

Intraspecific classification of Ficus deltoidea Jack subsp. deltoidea (Moraceae) in Peninsular Malaysia based on morphological and molecular variations

“…Although several studies on the classification of F. deltoidea have been reported based on morphological and anatomical diversities (Mat et al, 2012;Fatihah et al, 2012Fatihah et al, , 2014Awang et al, 2013), the results were not conclusive due to the complex morphological variation within the species. In order to further elucidate the phylogenetic relationship among varieties of F. deltoidea subsp.…”

Morphological Characteristics of Different Ficus Species Found in Samaru-Zaria, Nigeria

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