Morpho-anatomical adaptation of the leaves of certain Veronica species to arid conditions

Abstract

This study’s objective was to evaluate the adaptive potential of the leaves of Veronica (V. austriaca, V. incana, and V. prostrata) in the arid conditions of the Kryvyi Rih Botanical Garden NAS of Ukraine (KBG) located in the Right-Bank Steppe Cisdnieper. Leaves have been obtained from the collection of ornamental plants of KBG, where these plants are introduced for ten years. The seasonal dynamics of leaf development have been studied during the growing season of 2018, when the most arid climatic conditions were observed.The leaves of the investigated species were found to be dorsoventral, amphistomatic, with an anomocytic stomatal apparatus and bifacial mesophyll. Changes in the anatomical structures of the leaf blade towards xeromorphism were determined. In particular, in all studied specimens thickening of the cuticle, adaxial and abaxial epidermises (except V. prostrata, where the upper epidermis decreased by 35 %) mesophyll occurred. The number of stomata on the abaxial epidermis in all species decreased (the most notably in V. prostrata). Such increase of xeromorphism in V. austriaca, V. incana, and V. prostrata is an adaptive reaction of plants to the effects of extreme arid weather and climatic conditions of the Kryvorizhzhya, which testifies to the plasticity of investigated species and their high adaptation potential to the climatic conditions of the Right-Bank Steppe Cisdnieper.

Features of development of species of the genus Veronica L. in the conditions of steppe zone of Ukraine

“…Systemic mechanisms of plant adaptation to adverse environmental factors are associated with the modifications prostrata in the conditions of the steppe zone of Ukraine is characterized by high flexibility: it is the considerable increase in the period of vegetation and flowering over the past 10 years and manifestation of signs of xeromorphism during seasonal development, such as decrease in leaf area because of small size of cells of its tissues (Leshcheniuk, 2020). The identified reactions, apparently, contributed to the regulation of gas exchange and transpiration as shown in studies (Wang et al, 2016;Bano et al, 2019) and provided the plant protection under the action of elevated air temperature, as indicated by inverse correlation coefficient above the average level.…”

Jipsli Habitatlarda Doğal Olarak Yetişen Onobrychis germanicopolitana Hub.-Mor. & Simon (Fabaceae)’nın Ultrayapısal Bulguları ve Uyarlanabilir Yanıtları

“…Micromorphological data play a significant role in the classification of Angiosperms (Zareh et al, 2017). While investigating the morphological and anatomical features of vegetative plant parts, especially leaves, by microscopy techniques the adaptive capacity of the species can be observed (Hu et al, 2020;Leshcheniuk and Chipilyak, 2020;Silva et al, 2020). Microscopy creates high-resolution images with high sensitivity that are widely used in morphological microanalysis of plant tissues (Chavarria et al, 2020).…”