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Light and scanning electron microscopy‐based foliar micro morphological tools for the identification of fodder grass taxa
Author(s) -
Harun Nidaa,
Shaheen Shabnum,
Ahmad Mushtaq,
Shahid Muhammad Naveed
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
microscopy research and technique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1097-0029
pISSN - 1059-910X
DOI - 10.1002/jemt.23490
Subject(s) - cenchrus ciliaris , biology , fodder , poa annua , taxon , botany , inflorescence , ruminant , poaceae , crop , agronomy
Fertile plain of Central Punjab Pakistan is rich with fodder grasses and from centuries the local inhabitants of this area have been using their regional grasses for ruminant feeding. However, they always faced difficulties in identification because of their overlapping vernacular names, more or less identical leaf shapes, indefinite variations in stem branching pattern, and reduced floral parts. Hence, the current study has provided a detailed and comprehensive micro‐morphological analysis of 53 ethnobotanical fodder grass taxa. A variety of quantitative and qualitative leaf epidermal micromorphological traits was studied and results reported epidermal characters like stomatal index, silica bodies, prickles, microhairs, hook cells as most diagnostic in delimitation of species, and genera. As stomatal index was 79% in Poa annua while in its closely related species Poa infirmai was 85%. Similarly, Cenchrus ciliaris can be differentiated from Cenchrus pennisetiformis on the basis of silica body shape as butterfly shaped in former and dumbbell shaped in later one. Moreover, prickles were present in Chrysopogon aucheri while absent in Chrysopogon zizanioides . Hence, overall this study declared that diversity and variations in foliar micromorphological characters are valuable and supportive in the identification of grasses at the specific and generic level.