• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.283-305
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• 1992

Phytoliths (plant stones) mean all types of mineral deposition formed in or between plant cells. However, most of the researches on the phytoliths so far have been focused on the opaline silica bodies (silicified phytoliths) formed by grasses. Therefore, the phytolith is usually refered to opaline silica body in a narrow sense. Phytoliths are very useful in grass classification, and their usefulness as microfossils is also proved in several other fields, including soil science, paleoecology, and archaeology. Recently attention has been paid to the possibility that they might function as carcinogen. The purpose of this review is to present an overview of the nature and analysis of phytoliths and their applications in botany as well as other fields of sciencess.encess.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.199-215
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• 2009

Phytoliths formed on the leaf-blades of the seventeen Oryza species were examined using back-scattered electron imaging. The resulting descriptions of the phytoliths became the basis for a new key to the species of the genus. This key includes features useful for specific identification related to the silica bodies originating from epidermal cells upon both the mid-vein and bulliform cell, as well as of phytoliths originating from papillae, prickle hairs, large and small trichomes, and stomatal apparatus. These detailed phytolith descriptions, back-scattered electron images, and keys to both adaxial and abaxial sides of leaves, can now be used in identifying phytoliths from archaeological samples as well as extant species of Oryza.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.321-341
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• 2001

Phytoliths of leaf blades of Oryza were studied by light and scanning electron microscopy in order to assign the diagnostic character and taxonomic key for the genus. Some phytoliths such as stomatal apparatus, long-cell and short-cell, existing at the same position on the abaxial side of leaf blade, were intensively investigated because of their various forms documented in a previous study. These characters have value either for testing infrageneric classification or for identifying taxa within the genus. Stomatal phytolith is formed by integration of several kinds of sources, such as the guard and subsidiary cell and the papillae. The stomatal phytolith, characterized by not only the absence and presence of phytolith originated by the papillae developed on the guard and subsidiary cell but also their pattern of arrangement, shows various morphologies, and these features have congruent with the infrageneric classification such as section and/or series. Long-cell phytolith is characterized by the absence/presence, arrangement and morphology of phytoliths originated by the papillae on the cell surface. These features may hardly have any systematic relevance within the genus, but contain some informations for identifying of species. All of short-cell phytoliths found are silica body. They form various shapes like cross, bilobate, saddlelike and trilobate, and these features are consistent with infrageneric classification such as section and/or series. Also, some characters, the absence/presence of band of short cell phytolith within costal strip, the absence/presence of saddlelike phytolith within intercostal strip and the number of band of short cell phytolith within costal strip are various according to taxa, but these features do not fall into infrageneric classification. Some taxonomic keys on the phytoliths of stomatal, long-cell and short-cell were developed by their features, and the agreement between these characters and infrageneric classifications was also discussed.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.48-65
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• 2009

In order to understand the local vegetation history and the origin of rice cultivation, a phytoliths analysis was performed with sediments collected from archaeological site at Ga-dong in Gijang, Busan. From the analysis with the sediments of three sampling sites, fan-shape phytoliths of Oryza sativa were detected: sediment 8 ~ sediment 29 of sampling site 1, sediment 6 ~ sediment 20 of sampling site 2 and sediment 7 ~ sediment 33 of sampling site 3. On the bottom layers or near the bottom layers from the three sampling sites, high densities of Arundinoideae and Andropogoneae were detected. It indicates that these layers were wet soil environment when they were sedimented. From near bottoms up to surfaces, the densities of Arundinoideae and Andropogoneae were abruptly decreased, while the density of Oryza sativa was sharply increased. With these results, it should be considered that the rice cultivation was started from the Bronze Age on this region.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.205-208
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• 1998

Silica bodies (phytoliths) are becoming of wide use for pedology, archaeology, paleobotany and paleoecology in botany. This study investigated morphological differences of silica bodies in the lamina of wild, indica type, and japonica type rice. Phytoliths in the epidermis of lamina showed noticeable difference among tested plants. Besides, there were also significant differences in the shape and distribution of the silica bodies around stomata and trichomes. Silica bodies in the lamina of the rice plants could be used to classify subspecies of Oryza genus.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1-16
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• 2010

Phytoliths, silica microfossil that produced within and between cells and tissues of plants are especially yielded in Gramineae with many different forms and can attribute to the reconstruction of climatic and environmental changes and agriculture activity of the Quaternary. The phytoliths in soil can remain for long periods of time, because of strong resistance to physical and chemical weathering. The spatial range of study is too small due to deposition of phytoliths directly to the soil. There are difficulties of phytoliths identification because of multiplicity and redundancy, so far uniform and exact classification scheme has not been adopted. Therefore we attempted phytolith classification system applied to Korea. The paleoenvironmental reconstruction research using phytholith are applicated in many parts of studies. Also high-resolution paleoclimatic reconstruction expected to be possible using phytolith indices of Iph and Ic as well as climatic indicator of phytolith morphology.

• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.53-67
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• 1994

The opal phytolith types in Oryza sativa L. were examined with light and scanning electron microscope, and we suggested the standard tenninoligies based on original cells of the phytoliths in situ. The distinctive fonus of opal phytoliths were observed in all plant parts such as leaf blade, leaf sheath, culm, root, glume, lemma, and palea. The phytolith fonus originated from long cell, short cell, and dennal appendages were different from part to part. The opal phytoliths derived from the long cells showed the most various form: twelve types were identified based on side wall shape. The results showed that the leaf blade did include almost all types of opal phytolith observed in the other parts of rice.f rice.

• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.237-242
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• 1996

Epidermal leaf cell phytoliths of 17 species of Oryza were examined with backscattered electron imaging with scanning electron microscopy to determine the usefulness of phytolith morphology for systematic studies. Many kinds of identifiable phytolith morphology are observed in the leaf blades of Oryza. They are different among species as well as between adaxial and abaxial surface and costal and intercostal strip portions of leaf blades. Distinguishing phytolith characters are useful at the level of the section, such as Angustifoliae, Ridleyanae, and Granulatae. The results of a cluster analysis using 21 qualitative characters of phytoliths reveal many taxonomic characteristics which are compatible with current taxonomy.

• Proceedings of the Zoological Society Korea Conference
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• 1998.10b
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• pp.222-222
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• 1998

No Abstract, See Full Text

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.135-141
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• 1995

As the first step of study on fabrication of ceramic powders from phytoliths in rice, especially in rice husks, pulverization method of rice husks and the properties of milled rice husks were investigated. Impact methods, such as ball milling, were not meaningful for pulverizing elastic and thin fabric structure of rice husks. The most effective one was cutting method. In the present work, a rotating knife cutting method was applied to pulverizing rice husks. A 40-mesh screen was inserted under the rotating knives. The most portion of the milled powder was found in -50/+100 mesh section. Morphology of the milled rice husks revealed that the husks larger than 70 mesh were flake-like shape, at -70/+100 mesh section relatively equi-axed shape, at -170/+325 mesh section rod-like shape, and below 325 mesh section dust-like shape. Tap density of raw rice husks was about 0.1 $g/cm^3$, while those of milled rice husks were over $0.4 g/cm^3$. This meant that, for a given volume of reactor, raw material charge can be increased more that 4 times when using milled rice husks than unmilled one. True densities of unmilled and milled rice husks were higher than $1.4 g/cm^3$, and increased with decreasing milled sizes.