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Microscopic Features of Dominant Bladderworts of Northeast India
Kshetrimayum Raseshowri Devi1, Nagulan Venugopal2, Lal Bihari Singha3

1Dr. Kshetrimayum Raseshowri Devi, Department of Forestry, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science & Technology, Nirjuli (Itanagar)– 791109, Arunachal Pradesh, India.
2Nagulan Venugopal, Centre for Advanced Studies in Botany, School of Life Sciences, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong- 793 022, (Meghalaya). India.
3Lal Bihari Singha, Department of Forestry, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science & Technology, Nirjuli (Itanagar)– 791109, Arunachal Pradesh, India
Manuscript received on September 01, 2016. | Revised Version Manuscript Received on September 14, 2016. | Manuscript published on September 20, 2016. | PP: 5-9 | Volume-2 Issue-1, September 2016.
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© The Authors. Published by Lattice Science Publication (LSP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Abstract: Utricularia bifida Sm. and Utricularia pubescens Sm. are the most dominant and widely distributed bladderworts in Northeast India. The bladders of these species show doublelayered walls. The antennae in U. bifida were unicellular and uniseriate, whereas, the antennae of U. pubescens were numerous, long and multicellular forming a fringe. The digestive glands were either bifid with two arms in U. bifida or quadrifid with four arms in the case of U. pubescens which bear short single-celled stalk. The stalk cells represent the basal portion of the arms or the terminal cells abutted from their respective subconical shaped pedestal cells. The wall partition between the pedestal and the basal portion of the stalk bear several finger-like projections of transfer cell type. The walls of pedestal, stalk and terminal arm cells were clearly differentiated into three layers. The outermost cuticle layer of pedestal cell was thick, which extended till the base of the terminal or arm cell. The middle layer was highly impregnated with opaque materials and fibrils. The innermost layer was not impregnated with variously shaped electron translucent numerous vacuoles filled with granules. The pedestal and basal cells were interconnected with plasmodesmata.
Keywords: Utricularia, Ultrastructure, Digestive gland, Vacuole, Pedestal cell.