BIOSYSTEMATICS STUDIES IN THREE NIGERIAN REPRESENTATIVES OF ALOE

Abstract

The three Nigerian aloe accessions used in this study were already under cultivation in the Department of Crop, Soil and Pest Management, The Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. The objective of this study was to investigate the plant materials morphologically and anatomically with a view to separating them into taxa and identifying them. The vegetative morphology, floral morphology and the anatomy of the leaf epidermal layer of the plant materials were investigated. The design of the experiment was Completely Randomized Design (CRD). In all, a total of 21 characters were studied. The measurement of the morphological parameters such as leaf breadth, thickness, inflorescence thickness was done using a vennier caliper. The spine and mottle frequency was counted using a template design by (Akinyele 1998). The epidermal leaf surface was measured using pre-callibrated micrometer eye-piece graticle. The data collected were subjected to analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and means of count and measurements were separated using Fishers Least Significant Difference (LSD). Representatives A and B are closer to each other than any of them to C as observed in the vegetative morphology of the three aloe representatives. Results showed that each of the three aloe accessions should be recognized as a taxon, indicating that the three aloe accessions belong to three different taxa. Anatomical studies show some similarities among the three representatives. The length of epidermal cells on both adaxial and abaxial surfaces as well as stomata index and frequency on both the adaxial and abaxial surfaces separates the three aloe representative into distinct taxa. Identification of the taxa using the standard reference showed that Taxon is AAloe keayi Renolds, Taxon B Aloe macrocarpa Var major A. Bergerand Taxon C Aloe Schwenfurthii Bak.