Open AccessMULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF THE STEM ANATOMICAL CHARACTERS OF TERMINALIA L. (COMBRETACEAE) IN EGYPT
Author(s) -
Nahed Waly,
H. A. Moustafa,
Rim Hamdy,
Ashraf Soliman
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
maǧallaẗ matḥaf al-tārīẖ al-ṭabī’ī/bulletin of the iraq natural history museum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2311-9799
pISSN - 1017-8678
DOI - 10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0359
Subject(s) - principal component analysis , terminalia , biology , combretaceae , multivariate analysis , multivariate statistics , key (lock) , anatomy , botany , evolutionary biology , ecology , mathematics , statistics
A comparative investigation of the anatomical characters through a microscopical examination of the prepared transverse sections of the stem was carried out. Six plates with 32 photomicrographs were provided to convincingly show the considerable variations of anatomical characters within the nine examined species. The matrix of 18 anatomical characters which included nine quantitative and nine qualitative was applied for the clustering analysis (CA) followed by the principal component analysis (PCA) using the Multivariate Analysis of Ecological Data, PC-ORD. The results exhibited significant variations among the species resulting in the construction of an artificial key; this key accurately represents a sufficient tool to display the considerable variation among the recognized species prominently. The distinction between Terminalia L., 1767 species based on significant variations in the elements of stem anatomy; axial parenchyma and ray characteristics were considered as important parameters, while vessel diameter, fiber wall thickness, etc. were considered minor characters to differentiate between the studied species. The potential usefulness of the differentiation of these species properly maintains a profound efficiency in pharmaceutical and traditional medicine.