Wood Anatomy of Trees and Shrubs from China. I. Oleaceae

Abstract

The wood anatomy of 34 species belonging to nine genera of Oleaceae, native or commonly cultivated in China, is described in detail, and a key to the identification of the genera is given. The diversity in wood structure supports the grouping of genera as based on a worldwide wood anatomical survey of the family by Esser and Van der Westen (1983) and Esser et al. (in preparation). Characters to separate these groups are type of imperforate tracheary elements (libriform fibres or fibre-tracheids), vessel distribution and grouping (mainly solitary or mainly in multiples; in an oblique to dendritic pattern or not), presence or absence of vascular tracheids, presence or absence of parenchyma bands (mostly marginal), and vessel wall sculpturing and intervessel pit size.