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Wood Anatomy Of Caryophyllaceae: Ecological, Habital, Systematic, And Phylogenetic Implications, Sherwin Carlquist

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

Wood of Caryophyllaceae is more diverse than has been appreciated. Imperforate tracheary elements may be tracheids, fiber-tracheids, or libriform fibers. Rays may be uniseriate only, multiseriate only, or absent. Roots of some species (and sterns of a few of those same genera) have vascular tissue produced by successive cambia. The diversity in wood anatomy character states shows a range from primitive to specialized so great that origin close to one of the more specialized families of Chenopodiales, such as Chenopodiaceae or Amaranthaceae, is unlikely. Caryophyllaceae probably branched from the ordinal clade near the clade's base, as cladistic evidence suggests. Raylessness …