Abstract
Micro-morphological investigations of the foliar epidermal anatomy of seven species of the family Euphorbiaceae: Acalypha hispidia Burm. f., A. wilkesiana Mull. Arg, Euphorbia heterophylla L., E. hirta L., Jatropha curcas L., J. gossypifolia L. and Manihot esculenta Crantz was carried out to assess the systematic relevance of epidermal features, stomata and trichome diversity within the family using light microscope and camera. Members of this family contain many important medicinal herbs and there has been increasing misidentification of species in this family. Leaf micro-morphological characteristics are commonly used in the identification and authentication of plants. Results showed that the stomatal index varied from species to species. Epidermal cell shapes were found to be irregular to polygonal on both surfaces of the species. The epidermal cells possess straight to undulating anticlinal walls but in some few cases exhibited wavy to straight anticlinal walls. The presence of papillae was observed to be a unique character of E. heterophylla among the species studied. The stomatal types observed were Anisocytic, Anomocytic, Diacytic, tetracytic, paracytic, and actinocytic. The stomatal complex was mainly amphistomatic except for A. wilkesiana that was hypostomatic. The hypostomatic character of A. wilkesiana as reported in this paper is the first of such report as previous report found was amphistomatic. Non-glandular, multiseriate uniseriate and in some cases branched trichome types were observed only on both surfaces of A. wilkesiana and E. hirta but absent on all other studied species. This study revealed detailed descriptive micromorphological structures which could serve as a source of information and reference for the taxonomic description, identification and delineation of the species studied.
Highlights
The family Euphorbiaceae which is classified under the group of plants referred to as Angiosperm is one of the largest families of the plant kingdom [1]
The Adaxial epidermal cells were irregular to polygonal in shape in A. hispida, A. wilkesiana and M. esculenta; rectangular, irregular and polygonal in E. heterophylla; Polygonal in E. hirta and J. curcas and irregular in J. gossipifolia (Figure 1 A, C, G, I, J, M, O, and Q)
The epidermal cells were irregular to polygonal in shape in A. hispida, A. wilkesiana and M. esculenta, but irregular in E. heterophylla, E. hirta and J. gossipifolia and polygonal in J. curcas (Table 1 & Figure 1: B, E, F, H, K, L, N, P, and R)
Summary
The family Euphorbiaceae which is classified under the group of plants referred to as Angiosperm is one of the largest families of the plant kingdom [1]. The family contains over 800 species organized into 300 genera which may be woody trees, shrubs, climbing lianas or weeds [2]. The family is characterized by the production of milky sap, possession of unisexual flowers, superior and trilocular ovary, axile placentation with a collateral ovule, pendulous and ventral raphe, usually carunculate [2]. Nigerians make use of a number of these species of Euphorbiaceae for various purposes in both crude and processed forms. The use of these species in Nigeria can be classified into food and fodder, landscape and beautification, superstitious use, medicine, hedges, timber, and others [3]
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