Taxonomic and genetic studies of plants in Petrified Forest area of Egypt for documentation

Abstract

Wild plants are threatened with extinction as a result of man-made activities, as Petrified Forest Protected Area of Egypt which threatened by expanding construction projects all around. In the present study, 26 taxa belong to 14 families of dicotyledonous plants and 3 taxa belong to two families of monocotyledonous plants were the whole vegetation in the Petrified Forest Protected Area of Egypt during three flowering seasons 2014, 2015 and 2016. The macro and micromorphology of these taxa were studied. The result obtained from macromorphology by using different morphology-based keys and indicated that 15 taxa are annual and 14 taxa are perennial, 20 taxa are herb, 5 taxa are sub shrub, 2 taxa shrub and 2 taxa (zilla spinose subsp spinose and Lycium shawii) spiny shrub while 19 Taxa are simple leaf, 8 taxa lobed and 2 taxa (Trigonella stellate, Zygophyllum coccenium) are compound. Micromorphology of leaf blade indicated the presence of three types of mesophyll: centric in eleven taxa, dorsiventral type in fifteen taxa and isobilateral in three taxa Phragmites austoralis, Stipa capensis and Malva parviflora. Epidermal cells have different shapes; where tangentially cells in eleven taxa while tangentially papillose cells in two taxa as in Aizoaceae family, and radially cells in nine taxa while radially papillose cells in five taxa. Cuticle was thick and rough in twenty taxa while thin and smooth in eight taxa. Crystals have variation; where absent in fifteen taxa, nine taxa have druses and four taxa contain raphides.