ANATOMICAL SALIENT FEATURES OF SCHEFFLERA STELLATA (FOSTER) WITH REFERENCE TO LEAF ONTOGENY

A perusal of literature on leaf ontogeny reveals that the early apical growth of the leaf primordium is either by a single apical cell or by a group of subapical cell initials. But in Sechefflera the early growth in rather diffused. The shoot apical meristem of Schefflera does not deviate from the structure of other angiosperms. The cytohistological zonation with a single layer of tunica and a subjacent corpus without pith region, rib meristem is evident. This particular character probably is related to much crowding of leaves without internodal region. In this current study of Schefflera stellata , the leaflets are formed from most adaxial side of the leaf primordium resulting in the formation of leaflets around a central axis.