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ECOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DIVERSITY IN LEAF TISSUE ARCHITECTURE OF SOME SPECIES/CULTIVARS OF THE GENUS ROSA L.

TAHIRA NAWAZ¹, MANSOOR HAMEED^1*, MUHAMMAD ASHRAF^1,2, F. AL-QURAINY², M. SAJID AQEEL AHMAD¹, ADNAN YOUNIS³ AND MUSLIM HAYAT¹

Abstract: Six species/cultivars were selected for the comparative anatomical studies of leaf in the genus Rosa from Faisalabad and adjoining administrative districts. The most widely cultivated R. damascena showed some specific anatomical modifications in leaves such as thick leaves (lamina), thick upper epidermis, large palisade cells, wide protoxylem vessels, large phloem area and large and more stomata particularly on adaxial epidermis. This species showed reduced cortical cell area, lower epidermis thickness, spongy cell area, vascular bundle area and metaxylem area. These characteristics indicated ecological success of this species to a variety of environmental types. The second most widely cultivated species, R. bourboniana ‘Gruss-an-Teplitz’ showed thick leaves (lamina), large cortical cell area, large vascular bundle area, large metaxylem vessels and large phloem area. All the Rosa species/cultivars showed great diversity in leaf tissue architecture, which are the indicators of distribution and ecological success of the genus Rosa in the Punjab plains, particularly Faisalabad environments.

¹Department of Botany, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan 38040

²Department of Botany and Microbiology, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

³Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan 38040

^*Corresponding author’s E-mail: hameedmansoor@yahoo.com