IDENTIFICATION OF MALE AND FEMALE Cycas revoluta Thunb. BEFORE MATURITY USING MORPHOLOGICAL AND ANATOMICAL FEATURES

This paper reports sex determination of cycad (Cycas revoluta Thunb.) before maturity and cone formation. Sex determination in cycad is possible only after maturity and cone formation. In ideal conditions, it takes at least 10 to 12 years for cycad to reach maturity. In this research, two-years-old male and female off-shoots of cycad were separated from the adult male and female plants and were treated in natural conditions, uniformly. Morphological characteristics of male and female plants were visually compared. Anatomical features were studied on the sections prepared from primary leaf rachis, leaflet and root using light microscope. According to the Discriminate Analysis (DA) method, differences between morphological characteristics of male and female plants such as leaf rachis diameter, leaflets width, leaflets distance on the rachis, leaflets angle on the rachis, and roots diameter and length, were significant. The arrangement of leaves in one third of middle part was bipinnate with opposite leaflets and bipinnate with alternate leaflets in male and female plants, respectively (new leaflets initiate forms before and after complete formation of previous leaflets in female and male plants, respectively). Anatomical studies showed that the difference between the lengths of lower stomata in male and female leaflets were significant. Stoma type in cycad leaf is actinocytic.