With the aim of recognising useful features for taxonomic purposes, we studied the leaf anatomy of 25 taxa that are morphologically related (13 of Aechmea subgenus Lamprococcus, three of Ronnbergia E. Morren & André, four of Araeococcus Brongn. and five of Lymania Read). Although all leaves are hypostomatic and have a dorsiventral mesophyll with a hypodermis, they show some features that characterise each species. These features include, the stomata position on leaf surface, the presence or absence of substomatic occlusions, the occurrence or not of fibre clusters in the mesophyll, the nature of the cell walls of the vascular bundle sheaths and the cell morphology of the diaphragm that interrupt the air channels. By associating these characters we have elaborated an identification key for the studied taxa, based on the leaf structure.
Aechmea; leaf anatomy; taxonomy
