Author(s)

Kyohei Ohga, Miwako Muroi, Hiroshi Hayakawa, Jun Yokoyama, Katsura Ito, Shin-Ichi Tebayashi, Ryo Arakawa, Tatsuya Fukuda

Faculty of Agriculture, Kochi University, Kochi, Japan.
Faculty of Science, Yamagata University, Yamagata, Japan..

The morphology and anatomy of leaves of rheophytic and non-rheophytic types of Adenophora triphylla (Thunb.) ADC var. japonica (Regel) H. Hara were compared in order to clarify how leaf characteristics differ. Our results revealed that the leaf of the rheophytic type of A. triphylla var. japonica was narrower than the leaf of the non-rheophytic type because of fewer cells that were also smaller. Moreover, surprisingly, the rheophytic ecotype of A. triphylla var. japonica was thinner than that of the non-rheophytic type, although the general tendency is that the rheophytic leaf is thicker than the closely related non-rheophytic species, suggesting that the rheophytic type of A. triphylla var. japonica adapts differently, as compared to other rheophytic plants, to solar radiation and evaporation.

Rheophyte; Leaf; Ecotype; Adenophora triphylla var. Japonica

K. Ohga, M. Muroi, H. Hayakawa, J. Yokoyama, K. Ito, S. Tebayashi, R. Arakawa and T. Fukuda, "Comparative Morphology and Anatomy of Non-Rheophytic and Rheophytic Types of Adenophora triphylla var. Japonica (Campanulaceae)," American Journal of Plant Sciences, Vol. 3 No. 6, 2012, pp. 805-809. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2012.36097.