Functional morpho-anatomical characters of wood in some species of Fagaceae

The Fagaceae family is one of the most important elements of forest ecosystems in North of Iran. Despite its economic importance, because of the presence of unidentified and hybrid species, numerous synonymous and influences of environmental changes on morphological traits, as well as the use of different diagnostic characters for species identification, leaf polymorphism, have further complicated the confusion over species grouping in the Fagaceae especially in Quercus. This work was initiated with the objective of morphology and anatomy of wood of existing taxa in Iran to identify and establish their similarities and dissimilarities relationship between them. Thus, we observed 18 quantitative and qualitative characters from wood. Cluster analysis and Principal components analysis (PCA) were done based on Euclidean distance and covariance characteristics, respectively. PCA obtained the same result of the cluster analysis. Results showed that the color of young shoot branches, the presence or absence of lenticels, the presence or absence of stipules, the presence or absence of groove on young shoots, are important morphological traits in the Fagaceae family. Wood characteristics such as shape and size of vessel elements and fiber and tracheids, growth rings, wood porosity, vessel arrangement and vessel grouping, solitary vessel outline, perforation plates and inter-vessel pits arrangements and their shape and also wood density, varied from species to another. These findings are useful for species identification. It appears that differences and similarities among species are related to ecological environment and habitat conditions besides their genetic characteristics.

کلیدواژه ها:

Wood morphology and anatomy ، Fagaceae ، PCA ، Cluster analysis