Leaf Morphological Characteristics of Five Setaria Species

Abstract:

In order to understand the leaf morphological characteristics of leaves in Setaria, the anatomical structure of leaves in five Setaria species were studied for by using paraffin section and the freehand section methods. The results showed that the anatomical characteristics of leaf epidermis in five species were similar. The length of long cell and short cell, stomatal size and thickness of leaf and cuticular layer had significant differences among five species. And the shape of long cell, pattern of anticlinal wall, shape of stomatal subsidiary cells, and number of prickle hairs could be used to identify species. The correlation analysis showed that there were significant negative correlations between stomatal density and stomatal length, stomatal width. Besides, the thickness of bulliform cells had significant positive correlations with thickness of cuticular layer and adaxial epidermis for 5 species. According to leaf epidermal traits in Gramineae, the evolution trend was in the order of S. viridis → S. glauca and S. faberii → S. plicata and S. chondrachne. These could provide basic data for the study of systematics and evolution in Setaria.

Key words:Setaria Beauv.; Leaf epidermis; Morphological characteristics; Anatomical structure