Author: R. C. Pan and J. J. Chien
J Integr Plant Biol 1953, 2 (4): -.
A preliminary study has been made of the velamen of clivia nobilis grown in green house conditions. The velamen is found to be different from ordinary one in several respects.
The cell walls possess reticulated thickenings, the deposition of which begins from the outermost layer of cells and progresses inward. Standard chemical tests showed the cell walls to be suberized and only weakly lignified. All cells are living and found to be permeable to water. At a distance 2.5 cm from the tip, root hairs grow out from the outermost layer of the velamen. On it lenticels are also formed. The exodermis possesses then cellulose walls. Smaller cells in the exodermis which are richer in protoplasmic contents suggest passage cells.
Clivia nobilis has long been cultivated under green house conditions. This new environment is quite different from its natural habitat in South Africa. It is likely that the altered living conditions here effected changes in the velamen of this plant.