Abstract

Identification of medicinally important arboreal flora is important for sustainable and effective utilization. However phenotypic markers are insufficient for correct identification. Therefore present study was conducted for taxonomic evaluation of the selected sixteen tropical and subtropical medicinally important arboreal species, belonging to four orders and six angiosperm families based on leaf epidermal anatomical markers. The experiment was performed in the molecular taxonomy Laboratory, Department of Botany, Lahore College for Women University, Jail Road Lahore, Pakistan. The results of present investigations showed substantial variation in size, shape and arrangement of epidermal cells, stomata and trichomes. Eight different shapes of stomata; anomcytic, anomotetracytic, actinocytic, amphianisocytic, brachyparacytic, anisocytic, amphicyclocytic and stauricytic were observed. Anomotetracytic was the most dominant type of stomata observed in trees of tropical and subtropical region. Staurocytic stomata were found in Erythrina subrosa L. The variation was also found in number and shape of subsidiary cells and silica bodies. The present study concluded that leaf epidermal anatomical markers could be utilized significantly in delimiting the closely related taxa of medicinally important arboreal flora of tropical and sub tropical regions.

Key words: Leaf epidermal anatomy, anomyctic, anomotetracytic, actinocytic, amphian isocytic, brachyparacytic, anisocytic, amphicyclocytic, trichomes.