READMEFIRST
This section presents the data and supplementary information from the manuscript by Sebastián A. Frezzia; Silvina A. Contreras; Alejandro F. Zucol; Jorge O. Chiapella, titled "Leaf Anatomy and Phytolith Composition in South American Deschampsia (Poaceae) and Related Genera."
The present study provides the first comprehensive contribution on leaf anatomy, and the phytolith diversity and variability in species of Deschampsia and closely related genera in South America. This information may serve as a complementary tool in species morphological identification and as a basic identification tool in palaeobotanical studies, considering the wide area of distribution of the three genera.
This study focuses on South American species of Deschampsia, Avenella and Vahlodea genera.
The study species are (detail of Analysed materials in Appendix S1):
Avenella
Avenella flexuosa (L.) Drejer Fl. Excurs. Hafn.: 32, 1838.
Vahlodea
Vahlodea atropurpurea (Wahlenb.) Scheele, Flora 27: 56. 1844.
Deschampsia
Deschampsia airaeformis (Steud.) Benth. ct Hook., Gen. Plant. 3: 1158. 1883.
Deschampsia antarctica (Hook. f) B. Desv. in Gay, Hist. Chile (Bot.) 6: 338. 1854.
Deschampsia argentea Lowe, Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 6: 529. 1838.
Deschampsia berteroana (Kunth) Trin., Mem. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.-Petersbourg, Ser. 6, Sci. Math. 6: 10. 1838.
Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P. Beauv., Essai Agrost.: 91. 1812.
Deschampsia cordillerarum Hauman, Anales Soc. Cient. Argentina 86: 77, pL 4. 1919.
Deschampsia danthonioides (Trin.) Munro ex Benth., Pl. Hartw.: 342, 1857.
Deschampsia elongata (Hook.) Munro ex Benth., Pl. Hartw.: 342. 1857.
Deschampsia kingii (Hook, f.) E. Desv. in Gay, Hist. Chile (Bot.) 6: 335. 1854.
Deschampsia laxa Phil., Linnaea 29: 92. 1857-58.
Deschampsia looseriana Parodi, Darwiniana 8: 500. 1949.
Deschampsia mendocina Parodi, Darwiniana 8: 448, 1949.
Deschampsia parvula (Hook. f.) E, Desv. in Gay, Hist. Chile (Bot.) 6: 339. 1855.
Deschampsia patula (Phil.) Pilg. ex Skottsb., Kongl. Svenska Vetenskapsakad Hand. 56: 175. 1916.
Deschampsia setacea (Huds.) Hack., Cat. Rais. Gram. Portugal: 33. 1880.
Deschampsia venustula Parodi, Darwiniana 8: 450. 1949.
Attachment files
-01 Silica abundance
Silica content was calculated as a percentage of the dry weight as follows: Silica content (%) = (Weight of ash / Weight of dry matter) x 100
While EDAX spectrum of the minerals present in low-density opal-A and solid deposition were made a Phenom Pro Desktop SEM scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX).
-02 Phytoliths
Detailed illustrations of the phytoliths found in each of the species using an optical microscope.
-03 Anatomical characters
Anatomical characters and categories used for leaf cross-section analysis, and character state.
ID |
Character |
Character states |
1 |
Development of scicrenchyma strands |
reduced (0), developed (I), very developed (2) |
2 |
Position of sclerenchyma strands opposite to vascular bundles |
abaxial only (0), abaxia/adaxial (1) |
3 |
Position of sclerenchyma strands between vascular bundles |
absent (0), abaxial (1) |
4 |
Presence of girders |
absent (0), present (1) |
5 |
Position of bulliform cells at the abaxial side |
absent or rare (0), all (1), grouped (2) |
6 |
Position of bulliform cells at the adaxial side |
absent or rare (0), all (1), grouped (2) |
7 |
Number of large vascular bundles |
3 (0), 5–7 (1), <9 (2) |
8 |
Number of large vascular bundles |
absent (0), 2–4 (1),<6 (2) |
9 |
Length of the vertical axis between the midrib abaxial epidermis and the tip of the blade margin |
mm |
10 |
Width at the widest point of the leave |
mm |
11 |
Thickness of the blade at the midrib |
mm |
12 |
Thickness of the blade at the narrowest point next to the midrib |
mm |
13 |
Channel bounded by the arms of the lamina. |
no channel formed (0), horizontal (1), vertical (2) |
-04 Phytolith presences
Presence/absence of the following morphotypes:
Stomatal apparatus
Papillae
Unicellular hairs with a swollen base or body
Hooks
Unicellular prickles
Broken beard
Ovals
Conical body
Towers
Collapsed trapezoidal
Crescent moon
Truncated cone
Long boat-shaped
Short boat-shaped
Boat-shaped with straight ends or angular endings
Wavy boat shape (2- 6 lobules)
Rectangular boat-shaped with small lobes
Polyhedral bulliform
Rounded polyhedral bulliform
Fan-shaped bulliform
Elongated smooth
Elongated wavy
Parallel elongated phytoliths
Elongated with a dilated in their middle transversal sections
Fusiform cells
Blocky tabular
Tall and narrow phytoliths
-05 Data Matrix
Data matrix used for the multivariate analyses that were performed to explore patterns of similarity among species based on leaf anatomical characters and phytolith morphotypes. A total of 40 mixed variables were included in the analyses. Of these, 34 were qualitative variables, comprising anatomical attributes (e.g. development and position of sclerenchyma strands) and presence/absence data of specific elements (e.g. phytolith morphotypes).
In addition, six quantitative variables were incorporated, corresponding to frequency and measurements of anatomical features (e.g. blade dimensions, number of vascular bundles). To accommodate this mixture of data types, pairwise dissimilarities were calculated using the Gower coefficient.
A Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) was then conducted on Gower distance matrices to provide an ordination-based representation of species relationships.