Comparative study of chlorenchyma of vegetative organs in Phragmites australis and Molinia caerulea (Poaceae, Arundinoideae)

Abstract

Background. The description of assimilatory tissue in grasses of the subfamily Arundinoideaewas carried out on cross-sections of abovegroundorgans. The purpose of the work was a comparative study of the spatial form of assimilatory cells and the structure of the chlorenchyma of vegetative organs in Phragmites australis and Molinia caerulea, as representatives of the subfamily Arundinoideae, which have an arundinoid type of leaf anatomy. Materials and methods. At P. australis and M. caerulea, the anatomical structure of the chlorophyll-bearing parenchyma of leaf blades and leaf sheaths located in the middle part of the generative shoot, as well as the stem in its upper part, was studied in transverse and longitudinal sections under a light microscope. Plant samples were fixed in mixture of Hammalunda. Results. The chlorenchyma of vegetative organs of P. australis is represented by different variants of cellular and lobed cells, both flat, when complex projections are available only in one direction, and more complicated, having complex contours in two and three directions. The assimilation tissue of the vegetative organs of M. caerulea mainly consists of flat cellular cells. Conclusions. In the vegetative organs of P. australis and M. caerulea, a fairly dense arrangement of small-sized chlorenchyma cells, especially under the epidermis, is observed, the leaves of both species are close in their density of filling with chloroplasts. At the same time, these grasses differ in the structure of the mesophyll of leaf blades and the variety of forms of assimilatory cells in the chlorenchyma of vegetative organs.

Keywords

• arundinoid type of leaf anatomy of grasses
• chlorenchyma
• cellular cells
• lobed cells
• complex cellular-lobed forms of cells