STRUCTURE OF TRACHEIDS IN THREE SPECIES OF LYCOPODIUM

The structure of tracheids in Lycopodium lucidulum, L. clavatum, and L. tristachyum was studied with the light microscope. Protoxylem development is at least sometimes and possibly always mesarch in indeterminate axes of all three species. Centrifugally formed protoxylem elements are reticulate and discontinuities in the secondary walls of these elements are sometimes conspicuously bordered. Wall thickenings of first formed protoxylem elements consist mainly of indirectly connected rings. Late centripetally formed protoxylem elements and transitional elements have a reticulate secondary wall pattern. The narrowest metaxylem elements have circular bordered pits while in wider metaxylem elements pits are bordered and may vary from circular to scalariform. Pitting is uniseriate to triseriate in tracheids of all three species, and intermittent tetraseriate pitting was occasionally observed in L. lucidulum. Crassulae occur in tracheids of the three species, and in L. clavatum an additional framework, probably representing thickened compound middle lamella, is also present. Pits often appear helically arranged, and in all three species pits are connected by thin areas in the secondary wall. Macrofibrils approximately 0.5 μ wide were observed in tracheids of the three species. In L. clavatum the arrangement of macro-fibrils was predominantly bidirectional.