TAXONOMIC STUDIES ON SOME SPECIES OF FAMILY CHENOPODIACEAE (GOOSEFOOT).

Abstract

Macromorphological characters of roots, stems, leaves, fruits and seeds, in addition to the micromorphological features of seed surface sculptures performance by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), as well as electrophoretic identification of 4 species belongs to 3 genera of the family Chenopodiaceae (Goosefoot) were studied. These species were; Chenopodium quinoa Willd (Quinoa), Spinacia oleracea L. (Spinach), Beta vulgaris var. cicle L. (Chard) and Beta vulgaris L. (Beet). Because the species Chenopodium quinoa introduced and cultivated quite recently in Egypt and considered a new additive product to wheat cereal to produce a good bread quality,a new high protein crop (50 % more than wheat), so it is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal. The objective of this study was raised up to distinguish between this species and some of the more popular species of the same family using some micro and macromorphologyical characters. In addition, electrophoretic identification of the investigated species was under consideration. The brief results obtained from the macromorphologyical studies on roots, stems, leaves, fruits and seeds indicated that the species Chenopodium quinoa has characters varied compared with the other species. The macromorphologyical results on seed surface indicated that the species Chenopodium quinoa has falsifoveate seed surface pattern, while these patterns were; reticulate - rugose in Spinacia oleracea; reticulate - areolate in Beta vulgaris var. cicle and scalariform in Beta vulgaris. Data on biochemical analysis indicated that polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis separation of total soluble proteins can be used as a genetic finger print for identification, differentiation and comparison among the four studied species of the family Chenopodiaceae.