TAXONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE IN AZOLLA

Abstract

Azolla is an aquatic fern which belongs to Salviniaceae family that has huge potential as biofertilizers in paddy plantation, alternative food source for livestock and phytoremediation for wastewater. This plant is widely distributed in Southeast Asia, East Asia, Australia, India, and Africa. Previous study had successfully used morphological characteristics to identify the species of Azolla and to distinguish the Asian Azolla pinnata and African Azolla pinnata. In Malaysia, Azolla species can be easily found and highly reproductive in major irrigation schemes like ponds, lake, paddy field and river. Thus, the goal of this study was to identify morphological structure of Azolla species found in two different locations in Selangor. The identification and characterization of Azolla were made by evaluating the 16 morphological features applied to all Azolla accessions, the degree of dorsal leaf lobe imbrication and the length to width ratio of ventral leaf lobes. The morphological data were compared with previous study and analysed using Multivariate Statistical Procedures (MVSP plus Version 2.2) software to calculate the similarity matrix between the species. The findings of this study identifies both Azolla as A. pinnata subsp. asiatica based on the morphological features assessed from the two Azolla accessions. This study confirms that morphological features can be used to identify Azolla and the environment of the growth region may cause variations to the Azolla species. Thus, specific future collection as to the character of the collecting site and its ecological setting is recommended.
Keywords: Azolla, A. pinnata subsp. asiatica, morphological, identification