PARAVENOUS MESOPHYLL - REVIEW AND SURVEY OF THE SUBTRIBE ERYTHRININAE(PHASEOLEAE, PAPILIONOIDEAE, LEGUMINOSAE)

Paraveinal mesophyll (PVM) is a distinctive anatomical feature of the leaf mesophyll of some plant taxa that may represent a specialized phy siological compartment. A comprehensive review of the 42 published ref erences that mention PVM or similar cell layers and a survey of 121 of the 272 species of all nine genera of the Phaseoleae subtribe Erythri ninae demonstrate that PVM is nearly exclusively found in Leguminosae. In Leguminosae, PVM is either rare or absent in subfamily Caesalpinio ideae, uncommon in Mimosoideae, and extensively distributed among Papi lionoideae. In subtribe Erythrininae, PVM is ubiquitous in Erythrina, and occurs in four other genera. Three Erythrininae genera (Apios, Muc una, and Cochlianthus) lack PVM. Unique chloroplast-poor, enlarged con ical cells (pellucid palisade idioblasts) occur in 80 species of Eryth rina but not in any other genus of Erythrininae.