Abstract
The walls of guard cells have many specialized features. Guard cells are present in the leaves of bryophytes, ferns, and almost all vascular plants. However, they exhibit considerable morphological diversities. There are two types of guard cells: the first type is found in a few monocots, such as palms and corn, and the other is found in most dicots, many monocots, mosses, ferns, and gymnosperms. In corns, guard cells have a characteristic dumbbell shape with bulbous ends. Most dicot and monocot species have kidney-shaped guard cells that have an elliptical contour with a pore at its center. Although subsidiary cells are common in species with kidney-shaped stomata, they are almost always absent in most of the other plants. In this study, there were many different stomatal features that were associated with kidney-shaped guard cells, but not dumbbell shaped guard cells, which are present in most grasses, such as cereals. Each plant investigated exhibited different characteristic features and most of these plants had kidney-shaped guard cells. However, the guard cells of Chamaesyce supina Mold, were often more rectangular than kidney-shaped. In contrast, Sedum sarmentosum guard cells were of the sink ensiform type and in Trifolium repens, the guard cells exhibited a more rhombic shape. Therefore, kidney-shaped guard cells could be divided into a number of subtypes that need to be investigated further.