EXPLORATION OF SOME ANATOMICAL CHARACTERS IN GROUPING THE THREE NIGERIAN CLEOME L. SPECIES INTO C3 AND C4 PHOTOSYNTHETIC PATHWAYS.

The leaf anatomical and epidermal characteristics of three species of Cleome were studied in a bid to group them into the C3 and C4 photosynthetic pathways and contribute data to better understand possible range of quantitative anatomical characters of C4 plants that may be peculiar to dicotyledons. The characters investigated are intercellular air spaces, inter-stomatal distance, inter-veinal distance, Kranz tissue, leaf thickness, maximum lateral cell count criterion, mesophyll thickness, one cell distant count criterion, stomatal density, stomata index, stomata size and vein density. The presence of Kranz tissue, inter-veinal distance of less than 150 µm, maximum lateral count of two to five and mesophyll thickness were major features of the C4 Cleome species. This showed that C. gynandra is a C4 species while C. rutidosperma and C. viscosa are C3 species. Among the epidermal characters studied, only the stomatal density was useful in the delimitation of the species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]