Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Flora journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ flora A systematic approach to the investigation of foliar epidermal anatomy of subfamily Caryophylloideae (Caryophyllaceae) Fazal Ullah a,b, ⁎ , Muhammad Zafar a , Mushtaq Ahmad a , Syed Nasar Shah a , Abdul Razzaq c , Aamir Sohail c , Wajid Zaman a,d,e, ⁎ , Ali Çelik f , Asma Ayaz a , Shazia Sultana a a Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan, 45320 b Qarshi Herb Research Center, Qarshi Industries, Industrial Estate Hattar, Pakistan c Department of Botany, University of Peshawar, Pakistan d State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China e University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China f Department of Biology, Science and Art Faculty, Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey ARTICLE INFO Edited by Alessio Papini Keywords: Systematics Foliar epidermis Micro-Morphological characters Caryophylloideae Caryophyllaceae ABSTRACT In present research work, 14 species belonging to 5 genera of subfamily Caryophylloideae (Caryophyllaceae) has been investigated for foliar epidermal anatomy using light microscope (LM). This study revealed that the micro- morphological features of subfamily are taxonomically significant in accurate identification of species. The plant species were collected from different phytogeographical regions of Pakistan and studied for both qualitative and quantitative characteristics. Both upper and lower epidermis of the leaf has been studied and various micro- morphological characters examined including; shape of epidermal cells, anticlinal wall pattern, lobes per cell, type of stomata and trichomes. Out of 14 species, 8 have trichomes i.e. unicellular, multicellular and non- glandular. Twelve species have diacytic type of stomata, while two species Silene pseudo-verticellata and Vaccaria hispanica has anomocytic type of stomata. Keep in viewing of foliar epidermal characteristics and its diagnostic features taxonomic keys has been developed for easy and quick identification of species. The main objective of this research is to study qualitative and quantitative characters for the correct identification and species deli- mitation in subfamily Caryophylloideae. The foliar epidermal anatomy of subfamily shows valuable systematics information for identification of different species. The present findings of the foliar epidermal features are of special interest for plant taxonomists for the correct identification of species in subfamily Caryophylloideae (Caryophyllaceae). The micro-morphological features of foliar epidermal anatomy show many novel characters for accurate taxonomic identification and provide baseline information to plant taxonomists for further study. 1. Introduction Caryophyllaceae Juss., carnation or pink family consist of about 2200 species belonging to 88 genera and three subfamilies Alsinoideae, Caryophylloideae and Paronychioideae (Nyffeler and Eggli, 2010; Ullah et al., 2018b,a), species of the family is cosmopolitan in distribution. Family included a number of ornamental and common plants, such as Dianthus L. (carnations) and Gypsophila L. (Baby’s Breath) (Rabeler and Hartman, 2005). In flora of Pakistan the family is represented by 110 species and 26 genera distributed throughout the country (Ghazanfar and Nasir, 1986). Species of family is predominantly distributed in Mediterranean and Irano-turanian region (Smissen, Clement et al., 2002; Harbaugh, Nepokroeff et al., 2010). Some species of Car- yophyllaceae are growing in dry and exposed habitats. Some species are growing as a weeds in different crops i.e. Silene conoidea (Harbaugh et al., 2010; Smissen et al., 2002; Ullah et al., 2016, 2015). Phylogenetic relationship within subfamily of family Caryophyllaceae are still finite (Greenberg and Donoghue, 2011). The three subfamilies are diagnostically separated from each other on the present of nectar glands on abaxial base of the episepalous stamens (Alsinoideae), a clawed petal and tubular calyx (Caryophylloideae), while in subfamily Paronychioideae lake of stipules (Bittrich, 1993; Greenberg and Donoghue, 2011). Subfamily Alsinoideae and Car- yophylloideae have caryophyllad type of embryo, which showed https://doi.org/10.1016/j.flora.2018.07.006 Received 19 June 2018; Received in revised form 12 July 2018; Accepted 19 July 2018 ⁎ Corresponding authors at: Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan, 45320. E-mail addresses: fazalbotanist@gmail.com (F. Ullah), catlacatla@hotmail.com (M. Zafar), mushtaqflora@hotmail.com (M. Ahmad), nasarshah67@gmail.com (S.N. Shah), botshangla@gmail.com (A. Razzaq), sohailsyed821@gmail.com (A. Sohail), shangla123@gmail.com (W. Zaman), toygar09@hotmail.com (A. Çelik), asmaayaz@bs.qau.edu.pk (A. Ayaz), shaziaflora@hotmail.com (S. Sultana). Flora 246–247 (2018) 61–70 Available online 22 July 2018 0367-2530/ © 2018 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. T