ABSTRACT
Salt stress is harmful to plants, especially for those that live under conditions of intense salt aport. For this reason, several species present alternatives to prevent or diminish the damages that high salt concentrations may cause to the cells. Salt glands are one of these alternatives once they are specialized structures that secrete salt. Here, we aimed to investigate if the glandular trichomes in the leaves of Jacquinia armillaris are salt glands. Anatomical and ultrastructural observations showed that the glandular trichomes in J. armillaris resemble the salt glands from other recretohalophytes Primulaceae, such as, their occurrence in sunken regions in the leaf epidermis, the presence of a large basal cell that acts as a collecting cell, the detachment of the cuticle from the outer periclinal walls forming a cuticular chamber, the thickness of the cuticle in the stalk portion of the trichome, and the presence of sodium and chloride ions in the secretion and in the xylem. Altogether, the gathered results support the hypothesis that the glandular trichomes in J. armillaris are adapted to salt secretion, thus characterizing as salt glands.
