Morphological variations in stomata, epidermal cells and trichome of sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) in Caspian ecosystem

There are many rare and important species such as sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) in Caspian ecosystem which could be regarded as unique characteristics by plant biologists. Habitat destruction had strong adverse effects on sweet chestnut in the Hyrcanian forest. Unfortunately, had been adequate research on the species. In our current research, trichome and stomata morphology of C. sativa in the Hyrcanian forest were surveyed by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy and the results were compared with that of the European C. sativa. Furthermore, phenotypic variation of the three natural populations of the species (Siahmazgi, Ghalerodkhan and Visrod) was evaluated by stomata morphometrics. Large and small diameters of stomata, area and frequency of stomata and stomata area index were studied. Finally, nested ANOVA was performed. The results showed that stomata type was anomocytic with simple Unicellular, Stellate and fasciculate trichomes on the abaxial surface. There were clear differences between Caspian and European populations of sweet chestnut. As for population variability, statistical analysis of stomata diameters showed significant differences. The three Hyrcanian populations, however, could not be separated. In line with past research, the Ghalerodkhan population showed clear variation but verifying, the hypothesis molecular markers are necessary.