Wood Anatomy and Affinities of the Alseuosmiaceae

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Abstract
The secondary xylem of five species representing all three genera of Alseuosmiaceae was studied. Salient anatomical features that circumscribe the family include narrow vessel elements with many-barred, scalariform perforation plates, pores distributed as a combination of both solitary elements and radial multiples, living septate fibers with stored starch at maturity, and the scarcity or absence of axial parenchyma. An absence of rays characterizes Alseuosmia and Wittsteinia vacciniacea. The insular species, W. balansae from New Caledonia, contains exclusively multiseriate rays that are very wide and tall and composed completely of erect and square cells. The large rays and the occasional scalariform lateral wall pitting of vessel elements of this species are probably best interpreted as paedomorphosis related to the increased size of this plant. The ancestral habit of the family remains unclear since Crispiloba disperma has retained a more primitive xylem structure as evidenced by the occurrence of axial parenchyma and shorter and narrower heterocellular rays. Xylem anatomy can be used to support a position for the Alseuosmiaceae in or near the woody Saxifragaceae.

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