The Anatomical Structure of the Medicinal Raw Material Acorus Calamus L. in the Conditions of Culture of the Samarkand Region (Uzbekistan)

Abstract

While roots of many species and groups of flowering plants have recently been studied  developmentally, the roots of the plants considered to be basal monocotyledons by the Angiosperm  Phylogeny Group (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, 1998, 2003) have received little attention with  regard to root characteristics that may be relevant to their phylogenetic position. The basal  monocotyledon, Acorus calamus (sweet flag, Acoraceae), has been determined to diverge quite early  from the trunk of the phylogenetic tree of angiosperms. This species is phylogenetically closely  associated with the basal dicotyledonous angiosperm group, the Nymphaeales (Angiosperm  Phylogeny Group, 1998, 2003), which has been recognized to be an ancient group (Friis et al., 2001).  The phylogenetic position of Acorus was determined mainly from nucleic acid sequencing analysis,  but anatomical and morphological data supporting this position are rather scarce. While some  features of its root apex and general root anatomy were reported long ago (Janczewski, 1874; Holle,  1876; Kroll, 1912), little consistent information has been found on the developmental and structural  features of its roots (Keating, 2003), except for the analysis of vessels by Carlquist and Schneider  (1997). Therefore, attention was focused on the root apical meristem and the development of the  cortex of adventitious roots in Acorus calamus, but also included are related observations on other root  features, including stelar and epidermal characteristics.