SEED COAT MORPHOLOGY IN CORDYLANTHUS (SCROPHULARIACEAE) AND ITS TAXONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE

Abstract

A study of seed coat sculpturing in Cordylanthus (Scrophulariaceae—Rhinantheae) using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) shows that seed surface patterns are characteristic and constant for a given species or a group of species. Seeds of 23 species were examined and classified into four types (irregularly crested, deeply reticulate, shallowly reticulate, and irregularly striate) based on differences in the reticulated seed coat. Anatomical studies of sections with the light microscope show that the reticular patterns result from enlargement of the epidermal cells of the integument, followed by formation of characteristic wall patterns through lignification. Seed characters furnish useful data for formulating the taxonomy of Cordylanthus both on the sectional and subsectional level and for the delimitation of certain species. Seed coat morphology offers evidence for including the genus Dicranostegia in Cordylanthus and for maintaining C. hispidus and C. palmatus as separate species. The distinctness of two seed coat types within section Cordylanthus suggests two major phylogenetic lines within this section.