Prehistoric agricultural transformations in tropical Remote Oceania: Towards comprehensive phytolith analysis

Levin, Maureece J.

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2019.03.002

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…(1) Those that surveyed phytoliths from a variety of plants and established database for phytoliths [23,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]. (2) Those that studied the differences in phytolith morphology and assemblages among some families and genera [19,20,[47][48][49][50][51].…”

Section: Morphology Of Woody Plant Phytolithsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The size and number of phytoliths may vary significantly in different parts of the plants [22,88,89]. Some uncommon morphologies, such as tracheid, stomata, and elongate, are of little classification significance for the family [22,43,54].…”

Section: Arecaceaementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, we summarize the data of some special phytoliths found in leaves by predecessors in Table 1. There are few studies regarding phytoliths in bark [38,39,43,45,46,76], as phytoliths in bark have received little attention and are often sampled and analysed indiscriminately on branches or trunks. Collura and Neumann [38] conducted a systematic study in taxa from West Africa and reported that more than 90% of bark samples produced phytoliths suggesting that silica production is concentrated in bark more than in wood and that there are morphological differences between bark and wood phytoliths.…”

Section: Leaves Of Broad-leaf Treesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Phytoliths from Woody Plants: A Review

Xie

2022

Diversity

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Phytoliths are efficient proxies in archaeology, plant taxonomy, palaeoenvironment, and palaeoecology reconstruction, the research of which has been developing rapidly in recent years. Phytolith morphology is the basis of phytolith research. The morphological identification and classification of grass phytoliths are clear and detailed enough for application. However, the morphology of phytoliths from woody plants is ambiguous and unsystematic because of the relatively rare research on modern phytoliths and consequently seldom used in archaeology and palaeoenvironment reconstruction. This paper summarizes and concludes the research of woody phytolith morphology in the past decades. Previous studies show that palms and conifers produce some diagnostic phytoliths for identification and classification. There is progress in micromorphology, morphometry, and taxonomic identification of palms and conifers phytoliths. The phytolith morphology of broad-leaved trees is summarized according to produced parts of phytoliths in plants. The potential of further classification for broad-leaved phytoliths was discussed.

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Section: Morphology Of Woody Plant Phytolithsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Arecaceaementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Leaves Of Broad-leaf Treesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Phytoliths from Woody Plants: A Review

Xie

2022

Diversity

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Phytoliths from modern plants in the Canary Islands as a reference for the reconstruction of long-term vegetation change and culture-environment interactions

Castilla-Beltrán,

Fernández-Palacios,

Vrydaghs

et al. 2024

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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The Canary Islands were the first part of the Macaronesian archipelago to have been settled by humans. The various ways in which the indigenous inhabitants and later European colonisers interacted with the native and endemic flora is a central topic for archaeologists, geographers and ecologists. Floristic changes can be studied from phytoliths which are plant microfossils with a high potential for preservation in sediment deposits and they can help reconstruct past ways of life and vegetation changes through time. However, there is no comprehensive and systematic study and reference collection of phytoliths produced by the flora of the Canary Islands, so far. To make a start with a first phytolith reference collection of a selection of plants relevant for the study of past socio-ecological interactions there, we processed over a hundred modern plant specimens collected on the islands of Tenerife, Gran Canaria and La Palma to obtain the phytoliths from them, using the dry-ashing method. We then described the phytolith morphologies, and counted the numbers of morphotypes for each species. We have categorised taxa according to their phytolith concentration and production of morphotypes with diagnostic potential. Our results suggest that among the selected taxa, species within the Arecaceae, Boraginaceae, Cyperaceae, Poaceae and Urticaceae families are the main native producers of phytoliths in the archipelago. We also identified phytoliths with diagnostic potential in particular species within the Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Cistaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Lamiaceae, Lauraceae, Ranunculaceae and Rubiaceae. We discuss how phytolith assemblages can be interpreted in archaeological sites and sediment records. Our growing reference collection is a significant step towards the application of phytolith analysis to disentangle the long-term climatic and human-driven transformation of this biodiversity hotspot, as well as the cultural use of plant resources.

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