Leaf anatomy of medicinal shrubs and tress from Misiones forest of the paranaense province (Argentina). Part 2.

ARAMBARRI AM, FREIRE SE, COLARES MN, BAYON ND, NOVOA MC, MONTI C, STENGLEIN S.

BOLETíN DE LA SOCIEDAD ARGENTINA DE BOTáNICA

SOCIEDAD ARGENTINA DE BOTÝNICA

Año: 2008 p. 31 - 60

0373-580X

The present paper contains the study of the second part of medicinal shrubs and trees from Paranaense province. Forty five species of shrubs and trees belonging to 29 families inhabiting Misiones forest of the Paranaense biogeographic province (Argentina) have been cited with medicinal properties. The work provides illustrations of diagnostic characters and conclusions of the main botanical differential traits, such as the presence of crystaliferous epidermis (e.g. Trixis divaricata subsp. divaricata); stomata and trichomes types (e. g. ciclocytic stomata in Pilocarpus pennatifolius and scale peltate trichomes in Tabebuia heptaphylla); midvein transection outlines (e.g. midvein convex and keel-shaped on the adaxial side in Schinus weinmanniifolia); presence and types of crystals (e.g. crystal sand in Cordia ecalyculata, raphides in Psychotria carthagenensis). This paper also gives an ecological interpretacion of the species studied which shows predominantly a combination of mesomorphic (e.g. hypostomatic leaves, dorsiventral mesophyll) and xeromorphic leaf traits (e.g. thick cuticle, abundant sclerenchyma, multilayered epidermis, mesophyll formed exclusively by palisade parenchyma, multilayered hypodermis, presence of sclereids). Only two species (Ilex paraguariensis and Manihot grahamii) have mesomorphic (e.g. hypostomatic leaves, dorsiventral mesophyll) and hygromorphic leaf characters (e.g. epidermis glabrous). Finally, the work provides a key to distinguish 107 medicinal shrubs and trees from the Paranaense biogeographic provinces (Part 1: gallery forests and Part 2: Misiones forest) that permit identified species using anatomy leaf characteristics.