A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE STEM LEAF ANATOMY OF THE THREE WILD RICE SPECIES IN CHINA

Abstract

The results of study on the anatomy of the stem leaf of Oryza sativa L. f. spontanea Roschev.,O. officinalis Wall. and O. meyeriana Baill. in China indicated that O. sativa L. f. spontanea had full lysigenous space in the internodes,large lysigenous space in the mid rib of the leaf,and the lysigenous path in the large vascular bundles of the leaf.Its mesophyll cells were arranged compactly and its cell walls were much inwardly folded.In the lysigenous space in the internodes of O. officinalis remained some membranes. O. meyeriana had neither large lysigenous space in the internodes and leaf mid rib nor the lysigenous path in the large vascular bundles of the leaf.The results mentioned above showed that the three wild rice species having different anatomical structures adapted to growing in the water-grown and high solar-radiation ecotype of the swamp-land, the wet and little-sunlight ecological conditions of the mountain valley and the xerophilous and shady ecological environment, respectively.The authors believe that these differences among the stem leaf anatomical structures of the three wild rice species, such as the feature of lysigenous space of the internodes and the blades, the characteristic feature of the bulliform cell and the structure of the vascular bundles in the leaf, the stomatal character and the distribution of the papillae on the leaf surface, might be used as the initiative anatomical evidence for the identification of the three wild rice species in China.