cataphyll

Cataphyll single, slightly furrowed; opening lengthwise;

Plumular-radicular axis angular; primary root straight and persistent; collar roots develop or do not develop; hyperphyll elongate; cotyledonary sheath apical opening; coleoptile present; cataphylls two; eophyll pinnate, apex acute; venation pinnate; reduplicate.

alternating cycles of cataphylls and persistent foliar bases (Fig.

Cataphylls triangular basally, long-acuminate apically, 3-8 cm long, 1-2

It is also important to note that cataphyll traces are not girdling in extant cycads (Stevenson, 1990b).

Some of the seeds still show the remains of their desiccating sarcotestae (c) Apex of a coning Encephalartos friderici-guilielml plant showing emerging cataphylls around the base of each cone, as well as a layer of tomcntum or "wool" between the older cataphylls lower down (d) The damaged stem of an Encephalartos transvenosus individual from which bark has been harvested for traditional medicine.

Bulb subglobose, 20-30 x 20-30 mm, prolonged in a short collar up to 2 cm, sheathing the proximal part of the under*grown stem; cataphylls brown to stramineous, broadly ovate, apex cute, often fimbriate.

All the species of Berberis examined in this paper present a shoot system consisting of spiny long shoots and axillary short shoots, with a set of cataphylls at the base followed by foliage leaves (Figs.

Stem compressed in the distal region (cuneate), internodes short, 1-4 cm; basal cataphylls absent.

The following traits were observed (Andreata & Pereira 1990): number of hyaline cataphylls formed in the primary axis, characteristics of the cotyledonary sheath, number and shape of young leaves, aerial stem ramification, formation of underground stems and distinction among primary and adventitious roots, as well as their establishment.

Examples are e.g., the floral bracts in the fertile part of the inflorescence in Vriesea splendens and the cataphylls along the stolons of Aechmea distichantha.

Stem strongly quadrangular to keeled, intercalary cataphylls absent, internodes short, 2-4 cm; 1(-2) pairs of basal cataphylls.

Study of the minute "ligules" in the smaller and presumably more primitive species indicates that they are indeed cataphylls (Wanntorp et al., 2003).