Phytoliths as a Tool for the Identification of Some Chloridoideae Grasses in Kerala

Abstract

The phytoliths of eight genera including fifteen species of grasses under the subfamily Chloridoideae in Kerala were studied. Phytoliths were studied after chemical isolation. Every species was found to produce a diverse array of phytoliths. However the frequency assemblages of phytoliths, their size, and orientation in the epidermal layer appear to vary among the different species and hence can be used for the delimitation of the taxa. Consequently, an identification key following the International Code for Phytolith Nomenclature was developed for all the species studied.

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

“…Raole and Desai (2009) while carrying out epidermal studies in some members of Andropogoneae used the shape of silica bodies as one of the characters in classifying the taxa. The potential of phytoliths for species identification has been proved by our earlier work in the subfamily Chloridoideae (Jattisha and Sabu 2012).…”

Taxonomic assessment of opal phytoliths from grasses of deltaic West Bengal, India

“…While studying the lobate phytolith variations in grasses from China and the southeastern United States, Lu and Liu (2003a) also recovered a fair amount of bilobate phytoliths from Leptochloa chinensis. Jattisha and Sabu (2012) also reported Leptochloa chinensis from south India as a prolific bilobate producer. In the scatter plots obtained from correspondence analyses, the genus is plotted within panicoid group and showed its close relationship with panicoid grasses (Fig.…”

“…Triticum aestivum. Therefore, low to moderate presence of trapeziforms in non-pooid grasses of the region may be considered as a deviation likewise recovery of rondels from non-pooid grasses, crosses from non-panicoid grasses and short saddle from non-chloridoid grasses which have been recorded in several studies from different parts of the world (Mulholland 1989, Piperno and Pearsall 1998, Lu and Liu 2003a, b, Honaine et al 2006, Barboni and Bremond 2009, Ghosh et al 2011, Jattisha and Sabu 2012, Biswas et al 2016.…”

“…Phytolith formation in qualitative and quantitative terms is primarily genetically controlled (Dorweiler and Doebley 1997, Piperno et al 2002, Hodson et al 2005, Mitani and Ma 2005, Piperno 2006, Ma et al 2006, 2007a, b, Yamaji et al 2008, Chiba et al 2009, Peleg 2010, Markovich et al 2015, Exley 2015, Kumar et al 2016, McLarnon et al 2017 though environmental factors may sometimes be influential (Jie et al 2010, Liu et al 2013, Dey et al 2015. Due to the strong relationship between plant taxa and phytolith morphometry, these biogenic silicomorphs have been used as a taxonomic proxy (Metcalfe 1960, Twiss 1992, Mulholland and Rapp 1992, Krishnan et al 2000, Raole and Desai 2009, Ball et al 2009, Ahmad et al 2011, Shakoor et al 2014, Jattisha and Sabu 2012, Kealhofer et al 2015, Gu et al 2016, Neumann et al 2017.…”

“…Phytolith characters are considered as genetically governed important trait which may be only slightly influenced by environmental factors (Hodson et al 2005, Mitani and Ma 2005, Piperno 2006). Hence, their considerable diversity, distinctiveness and frequency attributes may provide crucial inputs in grass taxonomy and have been utilized for discriminating grass taxa at various taxonomic levels (Metcalfe 1960, Twiss 1992, Mulholland and Rapp 1992, Krishnan et al 2000, Raole and Desai 2009, Ball et al 2009, Ahmad et al 2011, Jattisha and Sabu 2012, Shakoor et al 2014, Kealhofer et al 2015, Gu et al 2016, Neumann et al 2017.…”