Dependence of anatomical structure features on morphological form of branching of grass shoots

Abstract

The occurrence of different shoot forms in Dactylis glomerata L., Festuca arundinacea Schreb., Holcus lanatus L., Avena fatua L. and other grass species was observed in investigations on vegetative reproduction modes deviating from normal. The relationship between the morphological and anatomical structure of these shoots, depends on the grass species as well as on ecological and biotic factors. The anatomical structure of elongated vegetative tillers and pseudostolons as well as underground rooting stems regrowing in the soil approximates that of stolons in Poa trivialis L. Branching generative shoots show the same arrangement of tissues as that encountered in non-branching ones. Shoots with such a structure are resistant to bending and, therefore, their contact with the soil and rooting of aerial tillers meet, as a rule, with difficulties. All kinds of parental branching shoots under study, irrespective of whether they developed above or in the soil, are usually short lived, provided with sheaths and leaf blades, similarly as stolons. It was found that in many grass species different tillering forms occur generally in vegetative reproduction what would require a definition and unification of names of such differentiated shoots.