| Anatomical characters often provide strong taxonomic evidence and many times help define species whose morphological limits are in question. This study aimed to survey characters of the leaf anatomy of 16 species of Crotalaria L. occurring mostly in the cerrado (savanna) of central Brazil and in areas of restinga (coastal woodland, or sandy forest) along the coast of the country, in order to improve the current taxonomic circumscription of sections and species. Leaf samples were collected in the field and obtained from herbarium specimens. Standard techniques in plant anatomy were employed, including analyses under light and scanning electron microscopy. Many of the characters analyzed are relatively uniform, but some are diagnostic for species. At the... |
