Palynological and Foliar Epidermal Anatomy of Herbaceous Plants in Lesser Himalayan Range of Azad Jammu and Kashmir

Abstract

This project is the first comprehensive taxonomic information on herbaceous plants species from lesser Himalayan range of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. This study is divided into two parts: pollen morphology and anatomical study. A total of 81 taxa belonging to 29 various families were collected, identified, analyzed, and studied for their morphological characteristics. Asteraceae and Lamiaceae were found as dominant families. The pollen grains were acetolyzed, measured, and described by scanning electron microscopy. A statistical investigation of the pollen characteristics of 77 herbaceous plants provided important insights into the similarities and differences among the species. With fifteen species, the Asteraceae family was the most dominant. These species produced pollen with echinate exine ornamentation that was prolate-, subprolate-, and oblate-spheroidal in form. The exine thickness varied from 0.98 μm in Gerbera gossypina to 3.99 μm in Calendula arvensis. Lamiaceae, with 12 species, is the second most prominent family. Out of all the lamaceous species, Lepidium pinnatifidum exhibited the thickest exine (4.99 μm). The exine sculpture of a few chosen pollen grains was found to be scabrated, reticulate, and psilate, while the pollen grains themselves were oblate, spheroidal, and subspheroidal. The size of the pollen varies from small to large and the apertures from monocolpate to tricolpate. Using IBM SPSS Statistics 20 software, the statistical analysis of pollen grains was to be performed. The surfaces of exines were examined to be psilate, echinate, and reticulate. The pollen grains of Fabaceae, Violaceae, Rananculaceae, Geraniaceae, Brassicaceae, Onagraceae, Aspergaceae, Balsaminaceae, Boraginaceae, Amaranthaceae, Colchicaceae, and Solanaceae were tricolpate. The clarification of the leaf micromorphology of the selected 49 herbaceous plants reveals characteristics like the stomata's categories, trichome type, and epidermal cell size and shape. In Aster atticus, they were measured to be around 97.52μm in length in the abaxial epidermal cell and 84.52μm in the adaxial epidermal cell. The stomata of Nepeta griffithii, a member of the lamaceous taxonomy, have a maximum length of 46.95 μm and a maximum width of 34.55 μm. The systematics research, particularly the palynological and anatomical studies, is fully described in this work. The stomata were noted to be anisocyctic, paracytic, diacytic, paracytic, anomocytic and anisocytic types of stomata were observed in Amaranthaceae while paracytic kind of stomata were recorded in Poaceae, Actinocytic stomata in ix Boraginaceae and Tamaricaceae, diacytic and staurocytic stomata while the trichomes were observed to be cylindrical, capitate, noncapitate, unicellular, multicellular, glandular, nonglandular, and conical. Micromorphological characteristics that have been recognized serve as a foundation for the accurate identification of herbaceous taxa and their systematics significance.