Vascular architecture of the monocot Cyperus involucratus Rottb. (Cyperaceae)

Abstract

The arrangement of vascular bundles in the stems of monocots has been described repeatedly as “scattered.” But to the trained eye it is clearly ordered as verified by the use of the R index of Clark and Evans. The arrangement of bundles in leaves and sclerenchyma bundles in stems are also ordered. An equation was developed for the probability distribution frequencies (pdf) for leaf intervein distances which curiously also fits for cell size in proliferating tissues. Another equation was developed for the pdf for intervein distances in stems which can also be applied to epidermal deriviatives such as stomata and trichomes.