Summary
With more than 1,200 species, Ruellieae is a taxonomically and ecologically diverse tribe in the Acanthaceae. In recent years, numerous morphological and phylogenetic studies have contributed important new information about species belonging to this tribe, yet basic anatomical knowledge of lineages within Ruellieae is relatively scarce. The objective of the present study is to help close this anatomical knowledge gap through comparative leaf and stem anatomical study of 14 species representative of all seven subtribes within Ruellieae. We document relative conservatism in leaf and stem anatomy except that unifacial leaves characterise a few taxa and have evolved a minimum number of three times in the tribe. Cystoliths were found abundantly in both leaf and stem tissue; these were oriented in two different directions in leaves while in stems only one orientation was found. Finally, we discuss the putative presence of a stem and petiole endodermis in several taxa studied. These data serve as a starting point for further comparative anatomical studies within Ruellieae and other Acanthaceae.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden for welcoming our research in their anatomy lab. We are grateful to Travis Columbus (RSABG) for helpful discussions on anatomy and Manual Lujan (RSABG) for assistance in preparing vouchers from living material. Two anonymous reviewers contributed important comments that improved this manuscript. Finally, we thank the National Science Foundation (NSF-DEB Award #0919594 and NSF-DEB Award #1354963 to Erin Tripp and Lucinda McDade) for funding this research and for funding the second author’s participation in RSABG’s Summer Research Institute training program.
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Tripp, E.A., Fekadu, M. Comparative leaf and stem anatomy in selected species of Ruellieae (Acanthaceae) representative of all major lineages. Kew Bull 69, 9543 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12225-014-9543-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12225-014-9543-8