Cordifoliae
|
publication ID |
https://doi.org/ 10.11646/phytotaxa.436.2.6 |
|
persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03E587EE-0A17-FFC5-FF46-C0EDB52B5BCD |
|
treatment provided by |
Felipe |
|
scientific name |
Cordifoliae |
| status |
|
Section- Cordifoliae
Cordifoliae is one of the largest sections of Indian Ficus and represents the most taxonomically diverse group of plants. Berg (2004) divided this section into two subsections: ‟ Urostigma ” and Conosycea , based on morphological characters. A total of twelve species of this section have been studied, of which five belongs to ‟subsection Urostigma ” and seven to subsection Conosycea . Among the twelve species, six species have cystoliths on the adaxial layer, three on abaxial and three have cystoliths on both the layers.
In section Cordifoliae , among different cystolith characters studied, the type of sculpturing has been considered to be taxonomically the most significant one. The aculeate type is the most common type among the studied species, but further division of this pattern into three subtypes, i.e. broad, moderate and reduced aculeate along with the variations in length and width of cystolith appendages and the mode of stalk fixation provide further support for cystolith morphology to distinguish the species at sub-sectional level. For instance, F. arnottiana is morphologically quite similar to F. religiosa , both showing aculeate type, but can be distinguishable by the mode of stalk fixation and sub patterns of aculeate type, i.e. F. arnottiana with reduced aculeate and F. religiosa with moderate aculeate ( Figure 1H, I View FIGURE 1 ). In addition, leaf anatomical characters such as number of epidermal layers, distribution of cystoliths either on adaxial or abaxial surface and their shape (spherical or ovoid) also support these distinctions ( Figure 3I, J View FIGURE 3 ). The detailed description for each species of this section and the comparisons are discussed below subsection wise.
No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.