BOTANICAL STUDIES ON SOME ORNAMENTAL PLANTS

Abstract

This study was carried out on 8 species of genus Ipomoea (wild and cultivated), in addition to one species of genus Merremia and one species of genus Argyreia. The aims of this study are to determine the taxonomic relationships between the three genera and to identify the taxonomic situation of genus Merremia or Argyreia, are they belonging to genus Ipomoea, or considered as separate genera?. The study focused on the macro-morphological survey of each species belongs to each genus and the micro-morphological survey on leaf and seed surfaces of each species by using Scanning Electron Microscopy. Using these data and analyzed by numerical analyses technique to represent the taxonomic relationships between the studied taxa in a form of dendrogram. As a result of their sharing in many characters, genus Argyreia is linked earlier with a species of genus Ipomoea at low similarity level before genus Merremia. This indicate that both former genera are belonging to each other. Finally, the posterior characters were used to design an artificial key to these Taxa.