The Leguminosae family is one of the best represented in the Amazon. Among the several genera, Plathymenia Benth. has two species. This study aims to give subsidies to the taxonomy for a better definition of the "taxa". For the anatomical study, the material was taken from duplicates from the collection of the Herbarium of the Emílio Goeldi Museum of Pará (MPEG), and submitted to the usual techniques in plant anatomy. There are many characteristics common to both species such as: oblong leaflets with smooth margins; brochydromous-type venation, with terminal tracheids involved by a parenchymatic sheath; hypoestomatic leaf blade, paracitic stomas; non-glandular trichomes distributed throughout the limb, although concentrated on the veins; dorsiventral mesophyll, with an extension sheath at the level of the vascular bundles. There is only one different anatomical characteristic between the two species studied: the stomas are found in depressions in the leaf epidermis of P. reticulata Benth, while in P. foliolosa Benth they are at the same level as the epidermal cells. The results obtained show that the leaflets of the species P. reticulata and P. foliolosa have similar morphological and anatomical characteristics, which reinforces the considerations that these two "taxa" may be a single species (CNPq/MPEG).
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