Abstract
Surface microstructure of Capparis cartilaginea Decaisne leaves collected from coastal hills of Paradise Point, Karachi (Pakistan) was investigated. The leaves had unicellular strap-like trichomes of around 300 µm. The leaves were amphistomatic and as per Prabhakar’s (2004) scheme of stomatal classification, there were four types of stomata identified in hexane treated leaves – anisocytic (70.79%), tetracytic (20.65%), anomocytic (7.74%) and staurocytic (0.65%). The density of stomata was relatively higher on dorsal surface (80.60 ± 1.45 per mm2) than on the ventral surface (61.9 ± 1.41 per mm2 ). Cuticular striation, in mature leaves untreated with hexane, was in form of long parallel ridges radiating from the peristomatal rim and running over periclinal surface of the subsidiaries and continuing over adjacent epidermal cells. This Cuticular feature was strikingly different from the pattern reported for intraspecific taxa of Capparis spinosa described by S. Fici (2004), particularly the taxon viz. C. spinosa var. galeata Hook. F. & Thompson, an African collection, which has been considered synonymous to C. cartilaginea Decaisne by Jafri (1973).
