Pusat Penelitian Konservasi Tumbuhan dan Kebun Raya - LIPI
Abstract
Pteris is a cosmopolitant fern genus inhabiting many kinds of habitats, mostly in forests. The genus grows as terrestrial or lithophyte. The high species diversity of Pteris was resulted from hybridization, apogamy or polyploidy, therefore complex species with continuous morphological characteristics often occur. This study was carried out to determine the role of paradermal anatomical characteristics as supporting data for species delimitation of Pteris. The study was done by observing anatomical characteristics of Pteris, namely stomatal size, epidermal shape and size, amplitude and wave length of sinousity, stomatal index and density, and the distribution of stomatal type. Six species of Pteris were observed, namely P. ensiformis Burm.f., P. fauriei Hieron., P. heteromorpha Fée, P. longipinnnula Wall. ex J. Agardh, P. tripartita Sw. and P. vittata L. The average of stomatal and epidermal size, as well as amplitude and wave length of anticlinal wall of the epidermal cells were relatively different for each species. The average of stomatal index and density were also different among species. Eight stomatal types were found to be distributed among the abaxial epidermis cells of Pteris. Six stomatal types were newly recorded for Pteris, namely anomocytic, pseudocopolocytic, hemiparacytic, cohemiparacytic, diacytic and brachyparacytic. The eight stomatal types were distributed among species with different combination and percentage of occurence. The quantitative characteristics of paradermal anatomy was not strong enough to support species delimitation in Pteris. However, the qualitative characteristics of paradermal anatomy seemed to be useful to support species delimitation of Pteris
