Seed Morphology of Sisyrinchium (Iridaceae-Sisyrinchieae) and its Allies

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Abstract
Seeds of 25 species of sects. Sisyrinchium, Echthronema, Eriphilema, and Nuno of the large North and South American genus Sisyrinchium were examined using the scanning electron microscope and light microscope and compared with seeds of representative species of related genera in the tribe Sisyrinchieae. Seeds of sects. Sisyrinchium and Echthronema are more or less rounded, are blackish with reticulate surfaces, and often have a large depression, the umbilicus, along the raphe. Species of sects. Eriphilema and Nuno have brown, more or less angular seeds with a strongly reticulate surface, and they lack an umibilicus. The genera Libertia, Ona, Orthrosanthus, Phaiophleps, Solenomelus, and Tapeinia have similar brown, usually angular seeds without an umbilicus. Seeds of Solenomelus have distinctive longitudinal lines of nearly circular depressions along the seed body, and one species has seeds with a large, half-circumferential wing. Seeds of sects. Sisyrinchium and Echthronemia appear to embody important, probably derived specializations. Based on seed characteris, sects. Eriphilema and Nuno seem more closely related to the other genera of Sisyrinchieae, particularly Phaiophleps, than to sects. Sisyrinchium or Echthronema.

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