COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGY AND ANATOMY OF THE LEAVES OF Ginkgo biloba L. CULTIVARS

The article presents the results of research on the morphology and anatomy of the leaves of 21 cultivars (including 10 Polish cultivars) and two clones of Ginkgo biloba. Leaves from long shoots were collected at the Department of Dendrology and Nursery, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poland. A light microscope and scanning electron microscope were used for observations. Eight morphological traits were analysed in the leaves, including the lamina and petiole. The research revealed that there were significant differences between the leaves of individual cultivars and that they differed in the length, width of the lamina and the length of petioles to a much greater extent than publications had described it so far. There were significant differences between the adaxial and abaxial epidermis of all the taxa, i.e. in the cuticle ornamentation, in the protrusive secondary sculpture (absence of papillae), the position and presence of stomata (occasionally on the adaxial leaf surface), the absence of the peristomatal ring and the thickness of the epidermis. Anatomical investigations revealed that the leaves of Ginkgo cultivars and clones under study were bifacial and the multi-layered mesophyll was diversified into spongy and palisade parenchyma. The research findings may be used for the identification of Ginkgo biloba cultivars, and the epicuticular traits may be useful for the identification and classification of fragments of fossil leaves. The article includes descriptions and illustrations of several new quantitative and qualitative characters of petiole and lamina which have not been published previously.