The morphology of hairs in species of Plantago L. Sections: Bauphula Decne and Arnoglossum Decne

Abstract

The hairs of one representative of the monotypic sectio <em>Bauphula </em>and of seven taxa of the section <em>Arnoglossum </em>were investigated. Unlike <em>P. </em><em>amplexicaulis </em>(sectio <em>Bauphula) </em>the representatives of sectio <em>Arnoglossum, </em>were found to have headless hairs on the scape with cells overlapping in a characteristic manner. They had no hairs with a unicellular stalk and head divided vertically into two cells, commonly occurring in the representatives of different sections of the genus <em>Plantago: Polyneuron, Lamprosantha, Coronopus, Oreades, </em><em>Leucopsyllium, Hymenopsyllium </em>and <em>Psyllium.</em> Rahn's decision (1978) to transfer the sections <em>Bauphula </em>and <em>Arnoglossum </em>to the subgenus <em>Psyllium </em>seems incorrect. The representatives of the investigated sections, unlike the taxa of the sectio <em>Psyllium, </em>have no hairs with multicellular stalks and unicellular heads, club-like hairs and iridoid-plantarenaloside, while they have morel-like hairs, hairs with overlapping cells and an iridoid-catalpol, lacking in the taxa of the subgenus <em>Psyllium</em>.