MICROMORPHOLOGY OF SEED IN SOME VICIA SPECIES FROM IRAN

The morphology of 11 species of the genus Vicia from Iran was studied using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The main pattern in seed coat sculpturing in the species was papillose, but the size and the number of side ribs in papillae and the density of papillae, were different in various species. Four morphological characters of seeds: relative hilum length and shape, relative position of the lens to hilum and seed circumference were constant. The results indicate that seed morphology is not useful in circumscribing sections in Vicia, but applicable in delimiting species and seed coat microsculpturing and testa patterns and that can provide additional characters for delimiting natural groups. However, the variation of these characters was too little to be applied for separating close species.