Leaf morphology and anatomy in Myrcia sect. Aulomyrcia (Myrtaceae): species circumscription and characterization of clades.
Resource type
Journal article
Date published
August 16, 2023
Abstract
Myrcia, a diverse neotropical genus of Myrtaceae, encompasses 793 species. However, species of Myrcia are similar and difficult to distinguish. In Myrcia sect. Aulomyrcia, leaf features help distinguishing clades and species. Our aim is to provide leaf data for species of M. sect. Aulomyrcia’s clades F, and G. We sampled 31 specimens of 13 species of Myrcia sect. Aulomyrcia (Myrcia amazonica, M. eumecephylla, M. hexasticha, M. insularis, M. magna, M. micropetala, M. neodimorpha, M. neoestrellensis, M. obversa, M. pyrifolia, M. riodocensis, M. subobliqua, and M. tetraphylla). Samples were subjected to sectioning and staining techniques for morphological and anatomical analysis through stereo and light-microscopy. Leaf blade and petiole morphological and anatomical features were described carefully for the first time for these 13 species. We provided an identification key based on leaf features. Our findings are discussed in the light of Myrcia sect. Aulomyrcia systematics. We comment of the significance of petiolar and blade features, such as trichomes types and location, phyllotaxis, rhytidome peeling, periderm and lenticels, and petiole, blade, and vascular cylinder shape. Our study brings novel information on leaf structure variation in Myrcia sect. Aulomyrcia, delivering much needed data for species and clades circumscription and identification.
Project(s)
Priority 4: Accelerated Taxonomy
Funder
| Funder name | Awards |
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brazil | Scholarship |
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Brazil | Research Productivity grant (PQ 306228/2016-5) - Research Productivity grant (310502/2019-5) - Universal grant (420034/2018-8) - PROTAX grant (441445/2020-9) |
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Estado de Santa Catarina, Brazil | Supplementary grant FAPS PROTAX 22/2020 (2021TR389) |
Journal title
Botany
Article number
cjb-2023-0038
Publisher
Canadian Science Publishing
Place of publication
Ottawa, Ont., Canada
ISSN
1916-2790
eISSN
1916-2804
Official URL
Rights statement
In Copyright
Additional information
IF = 1.361 (2022-2023)