In this study, the comparative wood anatomy of the European [Rhodothamnus chamaecistus (L.) Reichb.] and Anatolian (Rhodothamnus sessilifolius ) species of Rhodothamnus were studied. The wood anatomy of the taxa shows evidence of adaptation to growing in alpine habitats. | Turkish Journal of Botany Research Article Turk J Bot (2013) 37: 571-574 © TÜBİTAK doi: Comparative wood anatomy of Rhodothamnus species Bedri SERDAR* Department of Forest Botany, Faculty of Forestry, Karadeniz Technical University, 61080 Trabzon, Turkey Received: Accepted: Published Online: Printed: Abstract: In this study, the comparative wood anatomy of the European [Rhodothamnus chamaecistus (L.) Reichb.] and Anatolian (Rhodothamnus sessilifolius ) species of Rhodothamnus were studied. The wood anatomy of the taxa shows evidence of adaptation to growing in alpine habitats. The woods of the species exhibit primitive wood anatomical characteristics and share similar qualitative anatomical features. However, some of the quantitative anatomical characteristics of the taxa show significant differences, such as the distinctness of the growth ring and the bar number of the scalariform perforation plate. The present study describes and compares the anatomical properties of the wood of the Rhodothamnus species. Key words: Ericaceae, Rhodothamnus, wood anatomy 1. Introduction The genus Rhodothamnus Reichb. has 2 species in the world: Rhodothamnus chamaecistus (L.) Reichb. is confined to the eastern Alps of southern Europe (Greguss, 1959), and the other species, Rhodothamnus sessilifolius, is endemic to the north-eastern corner of Turkey (Stevens, 1978). R. chamaecistus is confined to crevices in calcareous (limestone or dolomite) rocks (Stevens, 1978), whereas on Tiryal Mountain, R. sessilifolius grows on igneous dacite rock outcrops that form cliffs or ridges (Terzioğlu & Milne, 2002). An emended description for R. sessilifolius was given by Terzioğlu and Milne (2002) based upon specimens collected from north-eastern Turkey in 2000, which was the first gathering of this species since 1960. R. sessilifolius was first collected on Tiryal Mountain above .
