Seedling leaf anatomy of three species of Dendrocalamus Nees

In early stages, seedlings of Bamboo grows slowly and species identification at this stage is difficult and demanding because of absence of distinctly separable morphological features. In this study, seedling leaf samples of three species of bamboo, Dendrocalamus stocksii, D. longispathus, and D. brandisii, were gathered, sectioned, stained, and examined under a light microscope. Images were captured and anatomical features of the species such as venation pattern, plicate cells (pc); crystals (cry); fusoid cells (fc); micro hairs (mh); long cells (lc); stomata (st); trichomes (tr); prickles (pr); bulliform cells (bc); silica bodies (sb); and vascular bundles (vb) were considered. The study highlights the importance of the leaf structure of bamboo seedlings, along with their anatomical features to distinguish species which are closely related. The findings deliver valuable insights into taxonomic uncertainties among the species of Dendrocalamus and lay the foundation for future investigations of bamboo seedling anatomy. We focus to highlight the significance of leaf anatomy of seedling as a reliable tool for bamboo seedling identification.