A STUDY OF THE VASCULAR ORGANIZATION OF BAMBOOS (POACEAE-BAMBUSEAE) USING A MICROCASTING METHOD

A reliable and simple microcasting method is applied to the study of t he vascular structure in bamboo nodes; it provides new insights into t heir complexity, revealing the exact arrangement of branched vessels a nd clustered tracheary elements. Axial differentiation gradients in th e metaxylem cell files, probable relies of the intercalary meristem, c an also be found using this method. This anatomical finding can be lin ked to a recent hypothesis on the continuum in the tracheary element d ifferentiation.