Comparative vegetative anatomy and systematics of the Oncidiinae (Maxillarieae, Orchidaceae) |
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Authors: | WILLIAM LOUIS STERN fls and BARBARA S CARLSWARD |
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Institution: | Department of Botany, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-8526, USA; Department of Biological Sciences, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL 61920-3099, USA |
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Abstract: | Subtribe Oncidiinae comprises a vegetatively heterogeneous assemblage of species that has persistently been incapable of organization. Anatomy was considered to be a possible means to resolve the perplexity of relationships amongst the constituent taxa. The consistent occurrence of a foliar hypodermis, homogeneous mesophyll, conical silica bodies in stegmata, and ubiquitous fibre bundles in leaves provides a matrix for linking the taxa, as do the parenchymatous pith and O-thickened endodermal cell walls in roots. However, the strict consensus of the 40 genera studied was completely unresolved, suggesting that vegetative characters alone are insufficient to assess the relationships amongst these taxa, a conclusion also reached for the remainder of Maxillarieae. © 2006 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society , 2006, 152 , 91–107. |
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Keywords: | cladistic analysis endodermis hypodermis stegmata vegetative anatomy velamen water-storage cell |
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