Morphological and Anatomical Features among the Two Cypselae of the Family Compositae | Insight Medical Publishing

The family Asteraceae is characterized by the presence of a special type of fruit known as cypsela. The present study deals with the detailed external and internal features of cypselae of the two species Emilia sonchifolia and Calendula officinalis of the tribes Senecioneae and Calenduleae, respectively. The cypselae were studied with the help of light microscope. Morphologically, special attention has been taken on the shape and size of cypselae, colour, pappus structure, stylopodia and its structure, surface, presence or absence of hairs etc. Anatomically, cellular nature of pericarpic region was studied. The present work has a great taxonomically significance, on the basis of both morpho-anatomical characters, which are helpful for the identification of taxa on the basis of cypselar features.