Petiolar Anatomy as an Aid to the Identification of Mangifera indica L. Varieties

Petiole anatomy of eight varieties of Mangifera indica L., namely ‘Alphonso’, ‘Badshashpasand’, ‘Cowasji’, ‘Jhumakhiya’, ‘Khodi’, ‘Ladvo’, ‘Pairi’ and ‘Sindoria’, growing in Gujarat were carried out. The evaluated characters were found to be useful in differentiating individual varieties. On the basis of significant characters, such as shape of petiole, cross-sectional area of petiole , vascular arc, shape of vascular strands, total visual count of vessels and radial multiples of vessels in main arc, number of resin canals and their diameter, thickness of cuticle and shape and size of epidermal cell and layers of hypodermal cell the varieties were investigated. Number of resin canal was highest in ‘Jhumakhiya’ (18), followed by ‘Khodi’ and ‘Cowasji’ (15), ‘Pairi’ and ‘Ladvo’ (14), ‘Alphonso’ ‘Badshahpasand’ ‘Sindoria’ (13) respectively. Thickness of cuticle was maximum in ‘Pairi’ (12 μm), ‘Khodi’ (10 μm), ‘Alphonso’ (8.5 μm), followed by ‘Jhumakhiya’ (6.24 μm), ‘Ladvo’ (7 μm), ‘Badshahpasand’ (6 μm), ‘Cowasji’ (5 μm) and ‘Sindoria’ (5 μm). Shape of petiole on adaxial side was circular in all the varieties except ‘Alphonso’ and ‘Badshahpasand’, which had planoconvex shape and ‘Sindoria’ with a highly convex shape. The evaluated petiole anatomical characteristic features proved to be a useful tool for the taxonomic discrimination of the eight studied varieties. An artificial synoptic key to the identification of the varieties has been formulated.