Original Articles
XU Bin, LV Huangfei and LIU Xi
Abstract
Rattan cane is a kind of plant resource with multipurpose utilization in the tropics and South Asian tropical forests. It is an important forest product second only to wood and bamboo, and with important economic values. Plectocomia himalayana is a special species that has great value for industrialized exploitation. The objective of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of vascular and fiber in Plectocomia himalayana. The microscopic observations and analysis are made to investigate the morphological characteristics of its vascular bundles and fiber. The results show that the vascular bundles as well as the vessels of Plectocomia himalayana increase from external to internal, the areas are 0.126 ㎜ 2 and 0.154 ㎜ 2 on average, and the variation is 0.059 respectively; the area of vessels is 0.015 ㎜ 2 and 0.042 ㎜ 2 ，and the variation is 0.013; the length and width of the fiber are 1.216mm, 0.025mm respectively, the longest is 1.99mm, the ratio (length/width) is 50.87, the diameter and cavity are 15.99μmã€ÂÂÂ10.33μm, respectively, the double wall thickness is 6.113μm, the lumen-diameter and wall thickness-lumen ratio are 0.646 and 0.592