Tropical Plant Research

Nitisha Srivastava

Botanical Survey of India, Central Regional Centre, 10, Chatham Lines, Allahabad-211002, Uttar Pradesh, India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/tpr.2021.v8.i2.019

Abstract:
In some complex families like Acanthaceae macromorphological features are not sufficient for delimitation of various taxa. The role of leaf epidermal details have now proven to play a key role in the identification and delimitation of such taxa. Present work was undertaken to study the leaf epidermal details of five species of genus Barleria i.e. B. cristata, B. prionitis, B. gibsonii, B. strigosa and B. prattensis using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Based on various epidermal features (type, size, arrangement of stomata; epidermal cell features; types, presence and absence of cystoliths; type, size and abundance of various types of trichomes; etc.) these species were differentiated and delimited. This will add a significant contribution to taxonomic studies of the family Acanthaceae.