The Occurrence of Kranz Type Species Among the Noxious Weeds on Cultivated Land of Taiwan and their Biochemical Subdivision

One hundred and one noxious weeds on cultivated land of Taiwan were investigated for the occurrence of "Kranz" leaf anatomy and activities of PEP carboxylase and $C_4$ acid decarboxylating enzymes : NADP-malic enzyme, NAD-malic enzyme, PEP carboxykinase. Based on the leaf anatomy and a/b chlorophyll ratio, twenty-seven species exhibit "Kranz" type leaf anatomy, and seventy-four species were found without it. Among the species investigated, Digitaria radicosa (Presl) Miq., Leptochloa chinensis (L.) Nees, and Sporobolus fertilis (Steud.) W. D. Clayton in the Gramineae were first recorded as $C_4$ plants. Twenty-sven species of "Kranz" type leaf anatomy, include those of monocotyledon ; sixteen species in Gramineae, six species in Cyperaceae. Those of dicotyledon ; two species each in Euphorbiaceae and Amaranthaceae and one species in Portulacaceae. The subtype of fourteen previously uninvestigated species among twenty-seven species were further determined. The properties of the three decarboxylating enzyme from representative species were also characterized.