Wood and Bark Anatomy of Buchenavia Eichl. (Combretaceae)1

Abstract

Wood and bark structure of Buchenavia (Combretaceae) was studied for infrageneric variation and taxonomic utility. Despite its wide neotropical distribution Buchenavia has a homogeneous wood anatomy, axial parenchyma distribution being the most variable feature. The presence or absence of septate fibres and presence and location of silica grains in ray and/or axial parenchyma might eventually allow recognition of individual species or species groups. Bark anatomy offers no diagnostic features for species differentiation. Wood and bark structure of Buchenavia (15 species studied) intergrades fully with that of neotropical Terminalia (5 species studied), thus corroborating results of studies on morphology (Exell ' Stace 1963) and leaf anatomy (Stace, personal communication, 1989) which postulate a very close relationship between the two genera.