The Kranz syndrome in the Eragrostideae (Chloridoideae, Poaceae) as indicated by carbon isotopic ratios*

• Main Authors: Hector O. Panarello, Evangelina Sanchez
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: South African National Biodiversity Institut 1984-12-01
• Series: Bothalia: African Biodiversity & Conservation
• Subjects: carbon isotoperatios; Eragrostideae. Kranz syndrome
• Online Access: https://abcjournal.org/index.php/abc/article/view/1852

13C/12C ratios are generally regarded as being very reliable indicators of C3 or C4 photosynthesis. These relative carbon isotope ratios are expressed as a negative δ 3C and fall into two distinct groups: Kranz (or C4) plants with δ between -9°/00 no and -18°/00 and non-Kranz (C3) plants with δ between -22°/00 and -280/00 no. In this paper, 29 taxa, representing 12 genera, of the tribe Eragrostideae were examined by mass spectrometry for their δ 13C in dried leaf tissue. All these taxa proved to be C4, plants with δ13C values ranging between -13,6°/oo and -10.9°/oo. These findings confirmed published leaf anatomical observations which showed that all the studied taxa had characteristic Kranz leaf anatomy.