Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2015, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (1): 90-99.DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1259.2015.00090

• EXPERIMENTAL COMMUNICATIONS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

SEM Observations and Measurements of Vestured Pits of the Secondary Xylem in the Tribe Rhizophoreae

Chuanyuan Deng1, *, Guiliang Xin1, Wanchao Zhang1, Suzhi Guo2, Qiuhua Xue1, Zhongxiong Lai3, Luying Ye1   

  1. 1College of Landscape Architecture
    2College of Life Sciences
    3College of Horticulture Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
  • Received:2013-12-16 Accepted:2014-11-13 Online:2015-01-01 Published:2015-04-09
  • Contact: Deng Chuanyuan
  • About author:

    ? These authors contributed equally to this paper

Abstract: We used SEM to investigate the distribution and micromorphology of vestured pits in the secondary xylem of 10 species and one variety representing all 4 genera within the tribe Rhizophoreae. Richness indexes of intervascular vestured pits and quantitative features of scalariform intervascular bordered pits were measured on SEM images by use of Carnoy 2.0. Vestured pits were present in vessel elements and tracheary elements of secondary xylem of the specimens and varied considerably in distribution and micromorphology. Stepwise regression analysis of richness indexes and quantitative features of scalariform intervascular bordered pits indicated increased richness indexes, including frequency of vestured vessel inner aperture, outer aperture and pit chamber with increasing aperture fraction, which suggests that richness of intervascular vestured pits was associated with the geometric structure of scalariform intervascular bordered pits. We demonstrate consistent occurrence of intervascular vestured pits in the tribe Rhizophoreae from the common presence of intervascular vestured pits in our specimens. In terms of ecophylogeny, vestured pits occurring in the vessel elements and tracheary elements of the secondary xylem of the tribe Rhizophoreae might be an ecologically adaptive character controlled by phylogeny.