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A Study of Foliage Morphological Descriptions Accommodating Continuity in Previous Delimitation of Types in Tropical Plants

Received: 23 February 2015     Accepted: 10 March 2015     Published: 24 April 2015
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Abstract

The morphological description of some selected tropical plants in Ogun State, Nigeria was investigated. This is with a view to bridge existing more or less compartmentalized foliar descriptions which are discrete and lack the observed continuum of shape types in nature. Plants from which leaves were collected and observed for the different traits were randomly collected from some Local Government Areas of the State. The qualitative macromorphological characters observed include, leaf type, leaf shape, leaf apex, leaf base and leaf margin with varying percentage occurrence. Of the 74 distinct foliage types examined 62(84%) matched the existing foliage descriptions in literature while 12(16%) had undefined shape descriptions. It was observed that simple (79%), ovate and lanceolate (18%), entire (58%), acute (26%), acute (44%) had the highest frequency for the leaf type, leaf shape, leaf margin, leaf apex and leaf bases respectively, while the lowest frequency was recorded to be compound (21%), linear, oblanceolate, acicular, orbicular, sagitate, falcate, peltate, hastate, lobed (1.6%), spinose, denticulate, crenate, parted (1.6%), mucronulate and cirrhose (1.6%), auriculate and hastate (1.6%) in the leaf type, leaf shape, leaf margin, leaf apex and leaf bases respectively. Other shapes hitherto undefined include: lanceospatulate, zygomorphic-trilobe, ensiformis, lobed-pentate, lobed-starlate and ellipto-dentoid. The study revealed that there is a continuum in plant foliage macromorphological description rather than independent occurrence of plant foliage characters found in literature.

Published in Journal of Plant Sciences (Volume 3, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.jps.20150303.11
Page(s) 111-116
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Foliage, Qualitative, Morphology, Delimitation

References
[1] E. M. Armstrong. “Leaf Types and Shapes” URL : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/leaf type and shapes. Retrieved 12-05-2014
[2] F. Bongers and J. Popma, “Leaf characteristics of the tropical rainforest Flora of Los Tuxtlas”, Mexico Botanical Gazette, vol 151, pp. 354-365, 1990
[3] S. W. Breckle, Walter’s vegetation of the earth: the ecological systems of the geo-biosphere”, 4th edn. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag, 2002
[4] C. Gwo and C. Wei, “Plant identification through images: using feature extraction of keypoints on leaf contours” Applications in Plant Sciences, vol 1, pp. 1200005, 2013
[5] B. Kirchoff, “Character description in phylogenetic analysis: insights from Agnes Arber’s concept of the plant”, Annals of Botany vol 88, pp 1203 – 1214, 2001
[6] T. O. Maria, C. A. Luiz and B. N. Raquel, “Leaf morphology of 89 tree species from a lowland tropical rain forest (Atlantic forest) in South Brazil”, Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology vol 47 (6), pp. 21-24. 2004
[7] A. B. Nicotra. Leaf size and shape. Prometheus wiki.http://prometheuswiki.publish.csiro.au./tikiindex.php?page=Leaf+size+and+shape (Verified 2 July 2014), 2010
[8] A. B. Nicotra, A. Leigh, C. K. Boyce, C. S. Jones, K. J. Niklas, D. L. Royer and H. Tsukaya, “The evolution and functional significance of leaf shape in the angiosperm”, Funct Plant Biol vol 38, pp.535-552, 2011
[9] O. Olorode. Taxonomy of West African Flowering Plants. The Book Project. Nigeria Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, 2011, pp: 14-17
[10] M. Pyykko, “Morphology and Anatomy of leaves from some woody plants in a humid tropical forest of Venezuelan Guayana”, Acta. Bot. Fennica, vol 112 pp. 1-41, 1979
[11] P. W. Richards. The tropical rainforest: an ecological study (2nd ed.), U.K. Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 44-56
[12] D. L. Royer, P. Wilf, D. A. Janesko, E. A. Kowalski and D. L. Dilcher, “Correlations of climate and plant ecology to leaf size and shape: potential proxies for the fossil record” American Journal of Botany vol 92, pp. 1141–1151, 2005
[13] M. Tsiantis, A. Hay, “Morphological innovations in plant leaves – origin” Nature review: Genetics vol 4, pp. 169-180, 2003
[14] L. Warman, T. Moles, W. Edwards. “Not so simple after all: searching for ecological advantages of compound leaves”. Nordic Society Oikos vol 000, pp. 001-09, 2010
[15] T. C. Whitemore. An introduction to tropical rain forests. Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 30-34
[16] F. I. Woodward, Climate and plant distribution. Cambridge, UK. Cambridge University Press, 1987, pp 35-52
[17] P. Wright, B. Groom and B. Lamon “Functional Plant Biology”. 2004 pp. 551 – 558
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    Fawibe Oluwasegun Olamide, Ogunyale Omolara Grace, Oyelakin Abiodun Sunday, Ayodele Muyiwa Segun. (2015). A Study of Foliage Morphological Descriptions Accommodating Continuity in Previous Delimitation of Types in Tropical Plants. Journal of Plant Sciences, 3(3), 111-116. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jps.20150303.11

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    Fawibe Oluwasegun Olamide; Ogunyale Omolara Grace; Oyelakin Abiodun Sunday; Ayodele Muyiwa Segun. A Study of Foliage Morphological Descriptions Accommodating Continuity in Previous Delimitation of Types in Tropical Plants. J. Plant Sci. 2015, 3(3), 111-116. doi: 10.11648/j.jps.20150303.11

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    AMA Style

    Fawibe Oluwasegun Olamide, Ogunyale Omolara Grace, Oyelakin Abiodun Sunday, Ayodele Muyiwa Segun. A Study of Foliage Morphological Descriptions Accommodating Continuity in Previous Delimitation of Types in Tropical Plants. J Plant Sci. 2015;3(3):111-116. doi: 10.11648/j.jps.20150303.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jps.20150303.11,
      author = {Fawibe Oluwasegun Olamide and Ogunyale Omolara Grace and Oyelakin Abiodun Sunday and Ayodele Muyiwa Segun},
      title = {A Study of Foliage Morphological Descriptions Accommodating Continuity in Previous Delimitation of Types in Tropical Plants},
      journal = {Journal of Plant Sciences},
      volume = {3},
      number = {3},
      pages = {111-116},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jps.20150303.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jps.20150303.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jps.20150303.11},
      abstract = {The morphological description of some selected tropical plants in Ogun State, Nigeria was investigated. This is with a view to bridge existing more or less compartmentalized foliar descriptions which are discrete and lack the observed continuum of shape types in nature. Plants from which leaves were collected and observed for the different traits were randomly collected from some Local Government Areas of the State. The qualitative macromorphological characters observed include, leaf type, leaf shape, leaf apex, leaf base and leaf margin with varying percentage occurrence. Of the 74 distinct foliage types examined 62(84%) matched the existing foliage descriptions in literature while 12(16%) had undefined shape descriptions. It was observed that simple (79%), ovate and lanceolate (18%), entire (58%), acute (26%), acute (44%) had the highest frequency for the leaf type, leaf shape, leaf margin, leaf apex and leaf bases respectively, while the lowest frequency was recorded to be compound (21%), linear, oblanceolate, acicular, orbicular, sagitate, falcate, peltate, hastate, lobed (1.6%), spinose, denticulate, crenate, parted (1.6%), mucronulate and cirrhose (1.6%), auriculate and hastate (1.6%) in the leaf type, leaf shape, leaf margin, leaf apex and leaf bases respectively. Other shapes hitherto undefined include: lanceospatulate, zygomorphic-trilobe, ensiformis, lobed-pentate, lobed-starlate and ellipto-dentoid. The study revealed that there is a continuum in plant foliage macromorphological description rather than independent occurrence of plant foliage characters found in literature.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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    AB  - The morphological description of some selected tropical plants in Ogun State, Nigeria was investigated. This is with a view to bridge existing more or less compartmentalized foliar descriptions which are discrete and lack the observed continuum of shape types in nature. Plants from which leaves were collected and observed for the different traits were randomly collected from some Local Government Areas of the State. The qualitative macromorphological characters observed include, leaf type, leaf shape, leaf apex, leaf base and leaf margin with varying percentage occurrence. Of the 74 distinct foliage types examined 62(84%) matched the existing foliage descriptions in literature while 12(16%) had undefined shape descriptions. It was observed that simple (79%), ovate and lanceolate (18%), entire (58%), acute (26%), acute (44%) had the highest frequency for the leaf type, leaf shape, leaf margin, leaf apex and leaf bases respectively, while the lowest frequency was recorded to be compound (21%), linear, oblanceolate, acicular, orbicular, sagitate, falcate, peltate, hastate, lobed (1.6%), spinose, denticulate, crenate, parted (1.6%), mucronulate and cirrhose (1.6%), auriculate and hastate (1.6%) in the leaf type, leaf shape, leaf margin, leaf apex and leaf bases respectively. Other shapes hitherto undefined include: lanceospatulate, zygomorphic-trilobe, ensiformis, lobed-pentate, lobed-starlate and ellipto-dentoid. The study revealed that there is a continuum in plant foliage macromorphological description rather than independent occurrence of plant foliage characters found in literature.
    VL  - 3
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Author Information
  • Department of Pure and Applied Botany, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

  • Department of Pure and Applied Botany, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

  • Department of Pure and Applied Botany, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

  • Department of Pure and Applied Botany, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

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