Somaclonal variation corresponds to the emergence of abnormal plants during the process of multiplication in vitro, mainly related to stature, in the case the gigantism. The aim of this work was to discover morphoanatomical differences of the leaf epidermis in an attempt to differentiate plants of "Prata-anã" from their somaclonal variants. Analysis by scanning electronic microscopy showed significant difference between the polar diameter of the stomata of the "Prata-anã" non-variant and its variants, both in vitro. The same does not happen for plants in vivo. The average number of stomata is lower in the somaclonal variant plants, but without significant differences except for plant PIII. Wax peeling is only evident in the variant plants of both the in vitro and in vivo material. We concluded that morphoanatomical characters of the leaf epidermis, such as stomatal density, polar stomatal diameter and wax uniformity act as morphological markers to characterize the micropropagated plants of "Prata-anã" in relation to the somaclonal variants for the characteristic gigantism.
wax; stomata; banana
