CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

STOMATA AND WAXES PRESENT IN THE STORAGE LEAF EPIDERMIS OF THE GARLIC CLOVE (Allium sativumAllium sativum L.) Pellegrini CN, Orioli GA. Depto. Agronom.a, UNSur. (8000) Bah.a Blanca, Argentina. E-mail: pellegri@criba.edu.ar The clove is considered the most important part of the garlic plant due to its double role of food and seed. It consists of three modified leaves: the protective leaf (thin and resistant) lining the storage one, that encloses the developing sprout. The storage leaf, the bulk of the clove, mainly contains reserve substances and water. Literature has descriptions about morphological and anatomical characteristics of the storage leaf, however nothing is said about stoma features and presence of epicuticular waxes here described. Studies were made using light and electron microscopy. The outer epidermis of the protective leaf consists of a single layer of elongated cells with primary walls, arranged in longitudinal rows parallel to the clove main axis. In some cells, both terminal walls are perpendicular to the main axis while in others, one of them is oblique. The apical and basal thirds of the protective leaf show anomocitic stomata spread among the longitudinal rows of cells. Some stomata are elongated in the direction of the epidermal cells but others are equidimensional with an oblique main axis. The formation of different stomata could be related with the terminal wall (oblique or perpendicular) of the protodermic cell where the first asimetric division takes place in the stomatic differentiation process. The epidermis outer surface is covered by amorphous aggregates of epicuticular waxes irregularly distributed that block the stomatal pores so making them non functional. Those elements are compatible with a strategy developed by this leaf in order to reduce the water loss.