Taxonomic Significance of foliar epidermal morphology in genus Plantago L. (Plantaginaceae Juss.) from Egypt | ||
| Taeckholmia | ||
| Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 18 October 2025 PDF (2.42 M) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/taec.2025.417957.1061 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Eslam Mohamed Elshamy* 1; Azza Ahmed Shehata2 | ||
| 1Botany and Microbiology department, faculty of science,Alexandaria,Egypt | ||
| 2Botany and Microbiology department, faculty of science, Alexandria, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Plantago L. is one of the largest genera of the Plantaginaceae family. The taxonomic history of Plantago clearly shows challenges associated with defining natural groups within this genus, particularly concerning the delimitation of the genus and its infrageneric classification. In the present study, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate the leaf micro-morphological characteristics of 18 species belonging to the genus Plantago, aiming to understand their diversity and the significance of these traits for identification and classification. The examined leaf micro-morphological features, including the pattern of the cuticular lamina, the structure of anticlinal and periclinal epidermal cell walls, and the morphology of trichomes, displayed differences among the species studied. The sum of leaf micro-morphological character states of the investigated species was subjected to a numerical analysis using the PAST program (version 3.12) to study the interspecific relationships. The specific relationships were discussed and compared with some of the current systems of classification. The findings from the cluster analysis and Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) demonstrated that the micro-morphological characteristics of leaves are valuable for identifying taxa and reinforced the infrageneric classification of the genus Plantago suggested by Rahn, especially at the sectional level. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| morphology; Plantaginaceae; Plantago; SEM; taxonomy | ||
|
Statistics Article View: 6 PDF Download: 9 |
||
