THE SEED ATLAS OF PAKISTAN-VI. CARYOPHYLLACEAE

Abstract

Seed micro morphological characters of 59 species, distributed in 21 genera of the family Caryophyllaceae were studied using light and scanning electron microscopy. There is a large variety of seed characters such as seeds reniform, sub reniform and rarely elliptic pyriform, cuneate, transversely cuneate, ovate, oblong, orbicular or sub orbicular, size ranges from 0.4-3mm x 0.3-3mm. Seed morphological data is found to be slightly significant for the tribal delimitation, while it strongly supports the generic and specific delimitations in the family Caryophyllaceae.