Leaf and peduncle anatomy of species in the genus Pterocephalus Vaill. ex Adans.(Caprifoliaceae) from Iran

Pterocephalus (Caprifoliaceae) consists of 30 species worldwide mainly distributed in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, in which 14 species reported in Iran including five endemic species. In this study, several anatomical traits were studied in 15 samples from 11 Iranian species of Pterocephalus. The 35 leaf-related traits and 30 peduncle-related traits were recorded with the light microscope. Our results showed that there are two types of midrib, six different types of indumentum in leaf and five types of indumentum in peduncle. Crystalized calcium oxalate was observed in the leaves and peduncles of most species. Sections of the peduncles were hexagonal, circular or elliptical form. The vascular cylinder was varied from circular to sinuate form among the studied species. Based on results, anatomical characters can moderately distinguish samples from several species. For instance, P.wendelboi that is very different from other species in morphology; it has also different anatomical characters. Species including that have peduncle with hexagonal sections such as P. ghahremanii, P. kurdicus and two species of P. szovitsii are very similar to each other. But these characters can‟t distinguish other similar samples

کلیدواژه ها:

Pterocephalus ، Caprifoliaceae ، Anatomy ، Leaf ، Peduncle