Course Title:
Anatomy of Vascular Plants
Course Instructor:
SALMAN SAEED
Botany department
UNIVERSITY college of management &
Sciences, Khanewal, PAKSITAN
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Definition
Study of internal structure of various parts of the plant.
 PLANT BODY:
 Organs (root, stem, leaves)
 Tissues (ground tissues, vascular tissues, dermal tissues)
 Cells (ground, vascular and dermal tissue cells)
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The practical application of anatomical
knowledge to diagnosis and treatment.
• Also known as clinical anatomy.
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Identification and classification
Taxonomic application
Medicinal plants
Food adulterants and contaminants
Animal feeding habit
Wood present day
Wood in archaeology
Forensic applications
Paleobotany
Applied aspects of meristem culture
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Cytologists, geneticists, ecologists, plant breeders, chemists and anyone using plants
for medicine, food, furniture, fabric or building material, or those conducting
molecular research on plants, must be able to identify their source material through
anatomy.
Natural, accurate and reliable classification result from taking into account features
of anatomy, morphology, palynology etc.
Better and easier identification and classification.
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 Anatomical
data is useful in discerning evolutionary
trend and relation between taxonomic categories.
Example 1:
• genera Anarthria and Ecdeiocolea were formerly treated
as members of the Restionaceae.
• An extensive anatomical survey of the family
Restionaceae showed the two genera to be misfits.
Example 2:
• Tree leaf material in China was examined anatomically
• Plant was Pycnarrhena macrocarpa.
• Further study of species from this genus led to discovery
of new genusEleutharrhena
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Group of stomata in abaxial surface of Eleutharrhena macrocarpa (a). In (b),
Pycnarrhena pleniflora, the stomata are scattered over the abaxial leaf surface.
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Drugs are extracted from leaves, barks, roots or rhizomes of plants.
 It is quicker to find out the identity of crude drugs from its anatomy than its chemistry.
 Pure material and adulterants are differentiated by anatomical confirmation.
Example:
• Ipecacuanha, used in cough mixture can be adulterated with roots from alternative
inferior species.
• The authentic source of the drug is Cephaelis ipecacuanha (Rubiaceae).
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Ipecacuanha, used in cough mixture
can be adulterated with roots from
alternative inferior species.
The authentic source of the drug is
Cephaelis ipecacuanha (Rubiaceae).
Sometimes Cephaelis acuminata is
used as a substitute.
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Occasionally substitute may be poor or unsuitable.
Rheum officinale root and rhizome is used medicinally.
But Rheum rhaponticum is the vegetable.
Fortunately, chemical and anatomical tests can be applied to
detect which species is present.
Digitalis purpurea and D. lanata are used medicinally. They
can be distinguished from one another on anatomical grounds
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Some herbs are used extensively in seasoning.
 These are often imported in the form of dried
powdered plant parts.
 It would be easy to introduce useless or
sometimes even poisonous adulterants which
would be difficult to detect with the naked
eye.
 Ailanthus leaf has also been used as a mint
adulterant.
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 Foreign
bodies sometimes get into food by accident.
 Often these are small and fragmentary and can be
identified only with the microscope.
 Example:
A splinter of wood in butter was found to come from a
species of Pinus. The importer and packers hoped to be able
to determine if the splinter could have come from the
country of origin of the butter, or whether it might have
been introduced during the packing stages.
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Animal sometimes consume crop plants.
It is possible to find out what has been eaten by studying the composition
of faeces, or stomach. For example faeces from rabbits, foxes etc.
Fragments of plant are very small when they have passed through an
animal’s digestive system.
Fragments are put into a petri dish, and the sample divided into its
components.
These fragments from each dish are examined using under the light
microscope.
Some African cattle were being injured by eating grasses. The cattle only
ate the grass when other plants were unavailable.
Faeces were examined and reported that there were silica bodies and sharp
hairs present.
Domestic animals occasionally eat poisonous The owner of the animals can
then take precautionary measures against further livestock poisoning.
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samples sent to Kew for anatomical identification consist
mainly of wood. The samples derived from different sources.
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The British Standards Institute has published a list of common
names and the species from which the woods come, and this is
the authoritative work which has to be followed.
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Preservation of wood is considerable economic importance.
experimental anatomy carried out in various parts of the
world in order to establish prevention of their degrading
activities.
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These characters also enable to identify the wood and charcoal preserved in sites
from antiquity.
Features like perforation plate and lateral wall pitting are still retained.
The wood of archaeological sample is compared with that of present-day-wood
India produce evidenceuse of wood. The Indus Bronze Age civilization of Harappa
and the Copper Age civilization of Hastinapura, were aware by uses of wood.
Deodara for making coffins has property of shock absorbing and Harappans were
aware of these fact.
Dalbergia sissoo and Holarrhena antidy senterica these two timber-yielding
plants. These plants provide fuel woods.
Corylus were well preserved in waterlogged condition in Somerset at Bronze Age.
Apart from wood and charcoal other archaeological plant remains are also
preserved. For example a sandal was preserved in ancient Egypt.
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The application of forensic science is helpful in investigating a crime.
 Use of plant materials in solving crimes or other legal problems.
 The morphological and anatomical diversity expressed by plant species
provide characters to
identify plant parts.
 Plants remains are present every where in form of macroscopic pieces and
microscopic forms.
 Edible plants are used to identify the stomach contents and last meal of a
victim.
 In dicotyledonous roots growth rings can indicate the number of years
passed since burial.
 Dendrochronology techniques enable to date the wood and so the year of
painting. These techniques are also used to detect when the wood was used
to make art objects or musical instruments etc.
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EXAMPLE:
• In 1932, in the evening of March 1st the infant son of famous American
aviation hero Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped from his home in
Hopewell, New Jersey, US.
• dead body of the son was discovered a few miles away from the family
home.
• The ladders were the only evidence left at the scene. They were homemade
and crude.
• Xylotomist Arthur Koehler of United state Forest Services in Wisconsin
examined the wood of the ladder both morphologically and anatomically.
• four species were used to construct the ladder —namely Yellow pine,
Pinus, ponderosa, Douglas fir and Betula sp.
• The basis of identification was the microscopic analysis of grain patterns of
the woods.
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Helps in identification of fossils
Placed in extant families and genera
Determines if roots or stem
Fossils may be sectioned, grounded
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Apical Meristem
 At tips of root, shoot and leaf
 The shoot is used in culture by cutting it out
and placing in nutrient medium
(composition and conditions)
 Micropropagation
 Usage in horticulture, forestry, agriculture
 Conservation of endangered species
(orchids)
 Example: Manihot esculentus
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Meristem at internodes
Adventitious roots formed at nodes
Horticulture use – propagation of plants by stem
cuttings
Example: Dianthus
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On lateral sides, consisting of vascular and cork cambium
Example: Cork cambium and fascicular cambium
Wound can regenerate
Employed in plant propagation
by cutting and grafting
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Identification –
in giving correct
names
Identification of
medicinal plants
Classification –
in classifying
correct families
and orders
For taxonomists
Paleobotany –
fossils
classification
Improving food
quality
Meristem culture
– in propagation
and removing
diseased plants
Quality of
furniture
improved by
identifying wood
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Salman Saeed Lecturer (Botany)
Salmanbotanist@gmail.com
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