CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Anatomy and development of fruits in Piriqueta and Turnera (Turneraceae). The aims of this work were to describe the morphology, anatomy and development of the fruits of 12 species of Piriqueta and 30 species of Turnera; to identify the structures related to the process of dehiscence of the capsule; and to verify the occurrence of standards carpological structure between the studied species. The ovary is 3-carpellar, syncarpous, unilocular with parietal placentation and has the same anatomical structure in all studied species. The outer and inner epidermises are single-layered with stomata; the ovarian mesophyll is composed by parenchyma, with three dorsal and three marginal vascular bundles. During the fruit development, the external epidermis develops a papillose epicarp in Piriqueta species. The mesocarp develops from the cells of the middle zone of the carpel. The mechanic stratum is formed by brachysclereids, developing from cells of the outer, median or inner layers of the ovarian mesophyll. Two main distributional patterns can be recognised: a mechanic stratum formed by continuous cylinder or clusters of brachysclereids. The first type determines smooth fruits, and the last form granular, verrucose, or tuberculate fruits. The capsules are loculicidal, with dehiscence lines characterized by the presence of macrosclereids, longitudinally dispose at the inner side of the carpellar dorsal bundle. We conclude that different types of pericarp are a post-fertilization feature, because the structure of the ovary is exactly the same in all species. We analyze the anatomy of the fruit in relation to the current taxonomic arrangement. Key words:

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