Structural variations among monocot emergent and amphibious species from lakes of the semi-arid region of Bahia, Brazil.

Temporary lakes are common in the semi-arid region of the State of Bahia and form water mirrors in the rainy season. In this period, various vegetal species appear having different life forms adapted to the seasonality conditions of the rainfall regime. This work surveyed the adaptive anatomical structures of some emergent and amphibious monocot species occurring in these lakes. We studied the anatomy of roots, rhizomes, leaves and scapes of Cyperus odoratus, Oxycaryum cubense, Pycreus macrostachyos (Cyperaceae) - amphibious species; and of Echinodorus grandiflorus (Alismataceae), Eichhornia paniculata (Pontederiaceae) and Habenaria repens (Orchidaceae) - emergent species. The anatomical features of the dermal, fundamental and vascular systems confirming the tendency of the adaptive convergence of these plants to temporary lacustrine the environment include: single layered epidermal cells with a thin cuticle layer in the aerial organs; the presence of air canals in all the organs; few or no supporting tissues; and less numerous conducting elements and thinner cell walls in the xylem. The reduction of the supporting tissues, the number of stomata, which can even be absent, and the number of conducting elements and the degree of cell wall lignification in the xylem of the emergent species is more accentuated than that of the amphibious species. The pattern of distribution of aerenchyma in the roots of the studied species was considered important to distinguish between amphibious and emergent life forms.

Genetic control of floral morph in tristylous Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata L.).

Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata L.) is a diploid (2n = 2x = 16) tristylous aquatic perennial. Populations usually contain 3 floral morphs that differ reciprocally in style length and anther height (referred to as the long-, mid-, and short-styled morphs, hereafter L-, M-, and S-morphs). The floral polymorphism promotes disassortative mating among the 3 floral morphs and is maintained in populations by negative frequency-dependent selection. The objective of this study was to determine the number of loci, number of alleles, and gene action controlling floral morph in pickerelweed. Three parental lines (one each of the L-, M-, and S-morph) were used to create S1 and F1 populations. F2 populations were produced through self-pollination of F1 plants. Progeny ratios of S1, F1, and F2 generations revealed that tristyly is controlled by 2 diallelic loci (S and M) with dominant gene action. The S locus is epistatic to the M locus, with the S-morph produced by plants with the dominant S allele (genotype S _ _ _). Plants with recessive alleles at the S locus were either L-morph (ssmm) or M-morph (ssM_). The results of this experiment demonstrate that the inheritance of tristyly in pickerelweed is the same as previously reported for several tristylous species in the Lythraceae and Oxalidaceae.