Comparative Systematic Studies of Astragalus in Flora of Arab Republic of Egypt and Syrian Arab Republic: Plant Anatomical Characteristics and Chemical Components

摘要

This is the third in a series of papers aimed at spotting any changes might occur in plants of a given flora when grown in another flora (habitat). Three species of Astragalus L.; namely, Astragalus annularis Forssk, A. boeticus L. and A. hamosus L. from flora of Syria were grown under Egyptian conditions side by side their correspondent species fro m flora of Egypt. In this study, anatomical characters and chemical components were followed up. Data obtained of this study and those of previous papers were subjected to numerical analysis. Results of anatomical features and chemical analysis sho wed that Egyptian types recorded higher values than their correspondents from Syrian flora in mo st investigated characters at both vegetative and reproductive growth stages. Ho wever, for qualitative characters, studied species almost showed no differences. Both A. annularis and A. hamosus showed similar behavior, but A. boeticus behaved differently in a way of its o wn. Syrian types were more influenced by variation of habitat, Egyptian types; ho wever, were more adaptal to local conditions. Numerical analysis proved that origin of seeds in case of A. annularis and A. hamosus played a prominent role. They splitted away in clusters process depended on origin where A. annularis and A. hamosus from flora of Egypt grouped together. Similarly, those, from flora of Syria clustered with their own selves. In contrast, A. boeticus from Egypt biased to Syrian group and Vise versa. This means that the response of plants when gro wn under different habitats (flora) differed acco rding to plant species; where each species showed a distinct response.