Studies On The Taxonomical Of Salsola L. From Xinjiang

Salsola L. is a primitive group in the family of Chenopodiaceae. Salsola L., which distributes in the arid region of Asia, Africa and Europe, is one of the representative groups in desert of Asia and Africa. Central Asian region is a center of diverse and distribution of the genus Salsola. There are 37 species of Salsola L. in China, mainly distributing in the northwest of China(expecially in Xinjiang). In Xinjiang, the genus has 21 species with obtuse leaf top, accounting for 1/2 of all species in Salsola of China. As lack of the understanding with biological characteristics and geographical distribution of these species for a long time, there are much controversy about the taxonomy and the systematic status of some species. In this paper, taxonomy of these species with obtuse leaf top was studied on the base of the study on the field investigation, certificate verification and morphological characeristics of specimen, pollen morphology and cytology. The results were as follows:1. Through field investigation, specimen research and material inquiry, 20 species with obtuse leaf top were ascertained in Xinjiang including one new recording species. Identification key of these species are constructed on the basis of the important taxonomic characteristcis. Afterwards, each specise with distribution, ecological environment, community features, vegetation types, elevation, collecter and the collection date were described in detail. The distributio map of each species were drawed according to the recording of specimens holding in the museum and related literatures.2. Pollen morphology: size of pollen grain, pollen surface and germinal aperture are different among species. There are two kinds of pollen morphology(spherical and sub-spherical)and three kinds of pollen surface decoration(point, granulate and tuberculum exine ornamentation); characteristics on pollen morphology size, wall decoration and aperture numbers are of some taxonomic values in classification between the group and species.3. Cytology: There are four kinds of karyotype in Salsola L. of Xinjiang, 1A type: S.sukacxevii,S.micranthera,S.affinia; 2A type: S.foliosa,S.arbuscula,S.dschungarica,S.heptapotamica; 3A type: S.lanata; 2B type: S.nitraria. Basic chromosome of Salsola L. is 9. S.orientalis is tetraploid; S.heptapotamica is hexaploid; others are diploid.