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ARTICLE

Anatomical and Molecular Identification of Ornamental Plant Ficus L. Species

Abtisam Binnoubah¹, Rim Hamdy², Osama G. Ragab³, Ahmed M. El-Taher⁴, Ahmed Abou El-Yazied⁵, Fatmah A. Safhi^6,*, Hala A. Elzilal⁷, Ashwaq T. Althobaiti⁸, Salha M. ALshamrani⁹, Diaa Abd El Moneim¹⁰, Ahmed El-Banhawy¹¹

1 Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of Sabratha, Sabratha, 999116, Libya
2 Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, 12111, Egypt
3 Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science (Boys Branch), Al-Azhar University, Cairo, 11884, Egypt
4 Department of Agricultural Botany, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, 11884, Egypt
5 Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Cairo, 11566, Egypt
6 Department of Biology, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, 11671, Saudi Arabia
7 Department of Science and Technology, College of Ranyah, Taif University, Taif, 21944, Saudi Arabia
8 Department of Biology, College of Science, Taif University, Taif, 21944, Saudi Arabia
9 Department of Biology, College of Science, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, 21959, Saudi Arabia
10 Department of Plant Production, (Genetic Branch), Faculty of Environmental Agricultural Sciences, Arish University, El-Arish, 45511, Egypt
11 Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, 41522, Egypt

* Corresponding Author: Fatmah A. Safhi. Email:

(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant–Environment Interactions)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2023, 92(5), 1329-1347. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2023.026888

Received 30 September 2022; Accepted 21 November 2022; Issue published 09 March 2023

Abstract

This present study includes twelve species that represent the Ficus genus, namely; aspera, carica, tinctoria subsp. gibbosa, hirta, hispida, neriifolia, palmata, pumila, racemosa, septica, sur, and sycomorus, belonging to the Moraceae family. The species samples were collected from various locations in Egypt. The study focused on the anatomical and molecular characteristics of mature foliage leaves. Since the identification and classification of taxa are highly dependent on the anatomical features of leaves, the anatomical characteristics were recorded in the form of a comparison between the examined plants in the data matrix. This study aims to contribute to the identification of the studied species based on the anatomical details of the matured leaves. Anatomical characterization includes the variations in upper and lower epidermal layers that are covered by a thin or thick cuticle; the number of palisade and spongy layers; crystals; secretory elements; lithocysts; the midrib zone has parenchyma associated with mechanical tissue, vascular system, and investigation of trichomes; on the other hand, in the current study, the phylogenetic analysis was conducted by using the ITS and 5.8 S sequences. From the analysis of all the available data, it could be stated that there is an overall agreement with the anatomical character dendrogram.

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Keywords

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