The stem and leaf anatomical charactristics of the genus Lallemantia (Lamiaceae)

Abstract

Lallemantia (Lamaceae; Nepetoideae) is a small genus species with a wide distribution area in Iran, is a traditionally used in folk medicine. In this study, we comparatively investigated Lallemantia species in terms of vegetative anatomy in order to evaluate usefulness of this characteristics for taxonomic porpuse. For anatomical examination, cross sections taken from stems and leaves of species were investigated using hand cutting method and bismak brown, carmin and metylenblue staining. Also, the anatomical characters were numerically analyzed by cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA). Athough general stem and leaf anatomical charactristics are very similar in the studied species, But, multivariate analysis indicated that some anatomical quantitative characters such as the thickness of lamina, palisade and spongy parenchyma provides valuable characters that would be taxonomically useful in this genus. Morphological similarity between L. baldshuanica and L. royleana have supported by stem and leaf anatomical data.

Keywords

• anatomy
• collenchyma
• Nepetinae
• taxonomy
• vascular bundles