OCCURRENCE of SIEVE ELEMENTS in PHLOEM RAYS Kishore S. Rajput & K. S. Rao Solitary Sieve Elements Or Groups of Sieve Element
lAWA Journal, Vol. 18 (2),1997: 197-201 OCCURRENCE OF SIEVE ELEMENTS IN PHLOEM RAYS by Kishore S. Rajput & K. S. Rao Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara 390 002, India SUMMARY Solitary sieve elements or groups of sieve elements were encountered in the rays of secondary phloem of Erythrina indica, Guazuma tomentosa, Acacia nilotica, Azadirachta indica, and Tectona grandis trees. These elements were short and possessed simple and compound sieve plates on their transverse to slightly oblique end walls. Each sieve tube ele ment was associated with a single companion cell at their comers. Like axial sieve tube elements, the sieve tube elements of the rays showed slime (P-protein) plugs and cytoplasmic strands when functional and massive deposition of callose on sieve plates in nonfunctional sieve tube elements. The distribution pattern of these ray sieve elements differed among the species studied. The detailed structure and possible signifi cance of these elements are discussed. Key words: Sieve elements, phloem rays, Erythrina indica, Guazuma tomentosa, Acacia nilotica, Azadirachta indica, Tectona grandis. INTRODUCTION Occurrence of sieve elements in the rays of secondary phloem is a rare feature and has been reported in Cucurbitaceae (Fischer 1884) and Compositae (Chavan et al. 1983). They have also been reported in mesocarpic as well as endocarpic regions of fruits (Thanki 1978; Shah et al. 1983). However, in the aforementioned plants they are slightly oblique to the axial sieve tube elements and developed mostly in the regions of ray splitting and ray fusion. Meagre information is available on naturally occurring sieve tube elements in the rays of secondary phloem (Chavan et al.
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