ELABORATION OF STIPULAR STRUCTURES IN AZARA-SERRATA R-AND-P (FLACOURTIACEAE)

Several appendages are attached at each node of adult shoots of Azara serrata. There is always a large 'leaf', which is equivalent to the le af blade of the early seedling leaf, and a small 'leaf' which is of st ipular derivation. Other additional appendages of stipular derivation can occur. These are generally glandular, but in the early adult phase (second-season seedlings) some of them may be leaf-like. Only the lar ge and small 'leaves' have a leaf-like vascular supply, from two trace s derived from an original trilacunar nodal condition. It is suggested that A. serrata, and other species, may escape from conventional morp hology by a cascade of stipular development and progressive elaboratio n, each stipular structure becoming accompanied by additional stipular structures with increasing size of the apical region as the plant dev elops from seedling to adult, and increasing size being accompanied by an increasing tendency to develop in a leaf-like manner. As a result there is a continuum of developmental possibilities for stipular struc tures, from gland to 'leaf'.