Morphological study of modern phytolith assemblages in guinea Sahara region of Nigeria

Abstract

Morphological study of phytolith was carried out from 11 plant species in 10 different plant families in Nigeria.Fresh plant leaves were randomly collected each from family which consists of leaves from 11 species for phytolith analysis. Schulze’s solution was the standard method used to extract phytolith from the sample. The extracted samples were examined with Olympus Bx41 microscope. Phytolith results revealed a wide range of phytolith morphotypes with considerable degree of variability. However, 9 species were reported to have cuneiform bulliform phytolith shape, 1 bilobate phytolith shape and 1 reported globular echinate phytolith shape. Psilate and verrucate surface texture was observed from the study. These results of phytolith analysis could serves as baseline data that represent the modern vegetation assemblage of the study area for future paleoenvironmental study and environmental reconstruction.