• Applied Microscopy
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2008

Salvinia is an aquatic plant forming dimorphic leaves that have been modified into floating and submerged leaves. A air of floating leaves plays an important role for the floating and photosynthesis while the submerged leaves, which are lim and long, have the form and function of root. Many aquatic plants develop trichomes in the epidermis but in Salvinia, richomes grow densely in the epidermis of the dimorphic leaves. The present study examined the differentiation pattern of trichomes developing in the floating leaves of S. natans and S. molesta by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Trichomes developing in the floating leaves of Salvinia showed very different patterns. In S. natans, they were arranged in a V-shape form, having 20${\sim}$25 rows at $18{\sim}25^{\circ}$ on both sides of the lamina divided by the midrib in the floating leaf. In each row, 8${\sim}$10 oval-shaped cells, $200{\sim}290{\mu}m$ in length, were arranged in a spiral fashion. Four trichomes of this form made a trichome unit, but their apical parts were separated from one another and developed into the so-called 'knuckle-crane' type. On the other hand, in S. molesta, trichomes differentiated in a unique pattern quite different from those of S. natans. At the early stage of differentiation, trichomes protruded from the epidermis and then 4${\sim}$6 cylindrical cells grew $400{\sim}600{\mu}m$ long and the four trichomes formed as an unit. The four grouped trichomes were interconnected through their apex and developed in the 'egg-beater' type. Then $300{\sim}600{\mu}m$ long multi-cellular stalk cells grew and protruded out of the epidermal surface from the basal part of the trichomes. Such a structural characteristic of trichomes is considered to play a very important role along with the aerenchyma tissue in the leaf mesophyll tissue for the floating of Salvinia on the water surface.