Bud and shoot structure may relate to the distribution area of South American Proteaceae tree species

MAGNIN N.A. ; GROSFELD J., BARTHELEMY, D, & PUNTIERI, J

FLORA

ELSEVIER GMBH

Lugar: Jena; Año: 2012 vol. 207 p. 599 - 606

0367-2530

The capacity of preformation and neoformation and the structure of winter buds are vegetative attributes that may vary between plant species and according to ontogenetic stages of the same species. This study evaluates these features for Patagonian tree species of the family Proteaceae, and highlights their diversity in vegetative morphology. The structure of the distal buds of the trunk and the preformed or neoformed nature of their organs were studied for several ontogenetic stages of four tree species of Proteaceae from Patagonia. Two of the species, Embothrium coccineum and Lomatia hirsuta, have scaly buds in which primordia of green leaves are covered by cataphylls. The shoots of both species may include neoformed organs, more frequently so in juvenile trees. Lomatia ferruginea and Gevuina avellana have naked buds and their shoots are entirely preformed with a low number of primordia at all ontogenetic stages. The structure of buds and shoots suggests two different growth modalities of the axes, which would be related to ecological breadth (lower in the species with naked buds than in those with scaly buds). The wide morphological differences observed between the two species of Lomatia studied here suggest that a phylogenetic review at the genus level might be necessary.