Morphological Studies on Terminalia L. Growing in Nigeria

Morphological studies on Nigerian Terminalia Linn. with emphasis on anatomical details of the leaf and stem of the present-day T. ivorensis A. Chev. were undertaken with a view to updating species delimitations and elucidating characters which are common on the Terminalia ivorensis A. Chev. "complex". Exomorphological studies of fresh and dried herbaria samples, habits, distribution of all these woody, indigenous and exotic trees of importance in National Resource Programme and also anatomical vessel evidence from T. ivorensis, indicated that the species are mesophytes, perennials and dicotyledons. The characters in common are aggregation of leaves at stem tips, racemose inflorescence with male and hermaphroditic flowers on same stalk. Other present life characters such as Pagoda or ill-formed pagoda, sympodial branches which are common go to confirm their belonging to the same genus. Studies on Natural habitat, vegetative (bole length, bark, leaf size, shape, base, tip) and reproductive features carried out comparatively showed variations of taxonomic value/usage. Earlier texts had reported numbers 4, 6, 9 species in the genus. However this study recognises 14 distinct species.