Anatomy of Asparagus racemosus Willd.

Abstract

An anatomical characteristics of Asparagus racemosus Willd. was studied. Plant samples were collected from 4 Regional Campuses in Honour of His Majesty the King, Kanchanaburi, Surin, 

Nakhonphanom and Phrae Province. Roots, stems and leaves were cut both cross and long sections, and then were carried out using paraffin method. Each plant has shown similar characteristics. The differences can be summarized below. Root apex composes of root cap and apical meristem with amorphous parenchyma. There is one layer epidermis, cortical tissue and polyarch xylem with wide pith respectively. Exarch xylem was recorded, alternating with a few cells of phloem element. Root tissue from each study site is slightly different in substance accumulation in epidermal and cortical tissues, size of endodermis, size of vessel and pith area. In young stem, apical meristem has tunica 2-4 layers and corpus 5-7 layers. Many types of trichomes on epidermis were found. Few layers of parenchyma was filled in cortex, atactostele with narrow pith was found. In mature stem, the tissues were similar to young stem except trichomes were disappear and parenchyma were changed to sclerotic parenchyma. The different characters among the four areas are the amount of accumulation in epidermis and cortex, size of vessel elements and pith area. Leaves were tri-angled shape with one layer of epidermis. Mesophylls compose of palisade and spongy parenchyma which druse crystals were found in some cells. There are xylem on the abaxial and phloem in the middle, and surrounded by sclerenchyma. The different characters among the four areas are the size of vascular bundle, layer of mesophyll and the number of stomata. The results of this study show that anatomy of Asparagus racemosus Willd. from four areas are slightly different.