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Life Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Plant Sciences

1990

Ecological wood anatomy

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Wood And Bark Anatomy Of The New World Species Of Ephedra, Sherwin Carlquist Jan 1990

Wood And Bark Anatomy Of The New World Species Of Ephedra, Sherwin Carlquist

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

Quantitative and qualitative data are presented for wood of 42 collections of 23 species of Ephedra from North and South America; data on bark anatomy are offered for most of these. For five collections, root as well as stem wood is analyzed, and for two collections, anatomy of horizontal underground stems is compared to that of upright stems. Vessel diameter, vessel element length, fiber-tracheid length, and tracheid length increase with age. Vessels and tracheids bear helical thickenings in 10 North American species (first report); thickenings are absent in Mexican and South American species. Mean total area of perforations per mm …


Wood And Bark Anatomy Of Empetraceae; Comments On Paedomorphosis In Woods Of Certain Small Shrubs, Sherwin Carlquist Jan 1990

Wood And Bark Anatomy Of Empetraceae; Comments On Paedomorphosis In Woods Of Certain Small Shrubs, Sherwin Carlquist

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

Wood and bark of 12 collections of Empetraceae representing three genera containing seven species (one with two subspecies) are analyzed with respect to quantitative and qualitative features. Empetraceae have vessels somewhat angular in transection, with scalariform perforation plates and scalariform to opposite vessel-ray pitting. Imperforate tracheary elements are all tracheids. Axial parenchyma is sparse and not subdivided. Rays are characteristically uniseriate and composed of upright cells (older stems have rays with both upright and procumbent cells). These features ally Empetraceae closely to Ericaceae and Epacridaceae. The narrow vessels, quite numerous per mm2 , denote a high degree of wood …