EMBRYOLOGICAL CHARACTERS TO STUDY THE JUSTICIA-RUNGIA COMPLEX (ACANTHACEAE)

摘要

Family Acanthaceae is characterized by very diverse plants whose taxonomic position is debated. Therefore, study of various macroscopic and microscopic characters had been used for studying the relatedness of the various taxa. Embryological characters are considered as one of the most stable characters. Justicia–Rungia Complex is one of the intriguing complexes present in family Acanthaceae. Justicia is basically a Linnaean Genus which included Rungia also. But later Rungia was separated from Justicia by Nees. Another offshoot of Justicia has been the formation of new genus Rostellularia which is also the creation of Nees. Due to this the Rungia is sometime confused as Justicia and some time it is considered as Rostellularia . In the present investigation embryological data is used to study the Justicia–Rungia Complex. The plants studied in present investigation are Justicia procumbens , Rungia repens , Haplanthus verticillata and Blepharis repens . The embryological study using UPGMA clearly indicates a very close similarity between Justicia procumbens and Rungia repens .