Stomata in Lagenaria (Cucurbitaceae)

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Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.

Taxonomic relationships in Lagenaria seringe (Cucurbitaceae) based on foliar epidermal morphology.

by Kadiri A. B., Utubor D.,  Ogundipe O. T. (2013)

Akeem Babalola KADIRI, 

Dumkele UTUBOR,

Oluwatoyin Temitayo OGUNDIPE 

–  – Thaiszia – J. Bot. 23 (1): 47-59. – ISSN 1210-0420. – http://www.bz.upjs.sk/thaiszia – 

https://www.upjs.sk/public/media/9724/047-059-kadiri-et-al-upr.pdf 

Abstract:

The genus possesses a suite of leaf epidermal characteristics which reflect the affinities among the species. The most generic constant features are anomocytic stomatal type and undulate anticlinal wall pattern on the abaxial surface.

Whereas the species distinguishing features include paracytic stomata which were recorded only in L. breviflora, hypostomatic leaf distinguishes L. abyssinica and L. rufa from other species that are amphistomatic, uniform epidermal cell shape on both surfaces of the leaf differentiates L. guineensis and L. siceraria from other species that have dissimilar patterns on the surfaces.

Other features are possession of globular head trichome in L. siceraria, imperfect conical trichome in L. abyssinica and bicellular glandular conical trichome in L. sphaerica.

Quantitatively, epidermal cells number generally varies from 28/mm² in L. vulgaris to 112/mm² in L. breviflora on the adaxial and abaxial surfaces respectively while stomatal number varies from 2-20/mm² and stomatal index is between 2.2 – 34.9 % on the adaxial surface and 8.2 – 20.8 % on the abaxial surface.

Based on these features, two main groups and subgroups are proposed based on neighbour joining cluster derived from Euclidean similarity measure. Also, an indented dichotomous key is presented for species delimitation.