Review of typologic and morphometric analysis of phytoliths produced by wheat and barley

Abstract

Solid deposits of amorphous hydrated silica are formed at specific intracellular and extracellular locations in many plant taxa, including all taxa in Triticeae. These deposits of silica are called phytoliths, literally meaning "plant-rocks." Many plants produce phytoliths with morphological characteristics that appear unique to a given taxon, a phenomenon giving them taxonomic significance. When plant tissue decomposes, any phytoliths formed are released into the surrounding environment thus becoming microfossils of the plants that produced them. Analysis of microfossil phytoliths can provide information to researchers in a wide variety of disciplines, including, archaeobotany, paleoecology, phytogeography and systematics. This paper reviews current methodologies and results of typologic and morphometric analysis of wheat and barley phytoliths.

An integrated micromorphological and phytolith study of urban soils and sediments from the Gallo‐Roman town Atuatuca Tungrorum, Belgium

“…Notably, the articulated assemblages include phytoliths known as dendritics (ICPN Working Group: Madella, Alexandre, & Ball, ; Figure d), typically produced by cultivated crops (T. B. Ball, Ehlers, & Standing, ). Their articulated distribution implies that inflorescence bracts from cereals decomposed in situ.…”

“…Phytoliths derived from grasses are the most common in the assemblages of each of these distribution patterns. Notably, the articulated assemblages include phytoliths known as dendritics (ICPN Working Group:Madella, Alexandre, & Ball, 2005; Figure 5d), typically produced by cultivated crops (T. B Ball, Ehlers, & Standing, 2009)…”

Revealing a 5,000-y-old beer recipe in China

“…The morphological identification relied on a reference collection from over 1,000 Asian and European economically important plant specimens, and by consultation with published literature (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16) (Table S1). For morphometric analysis, we applied two computer-assisted methods.…”

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

“…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.…”