Chemosystematic studies of some species of the genus potamogeton L. in Egypt

ABSTRACT

Morphological, anatomical and a phytochemical studies were conducted on four out of seven potamogeton L. species recorded in the flora of Egypt. The stem anatomy referred to the presence of three types of steles and three types of endodermis. The chemical investigation revealed the presence of eleven flavonoid compounds, the distribution of which was traced in the studied species to evaluate the interspecific affinity through this parameter It was found that the chemical data in this work justify the classification of ascherson and graebner [1907] as regards the assignment of the four studied species to their sections. A key based on a combination of the anatomical and chemical characters was suggested for species delimitation: