Using the micromorphology characters of the surface of weed seeds Securiotera varia (L.) Lassen and Coronilla scorpioides (L.) W.D.J. Koch for their identification in phytosanitary practice

Fabаceae weeds often contaminate grain products, reducing its quality. Seed species identification of this weed group in test laboratories is carried out by a complex of visual morphological macrocharacters by light microscopy. However, in many cases it is difficult to identify the species of Fabаceae seeds due to considerable morphological similarity of diasporas. In modern research, micromorphology peculiarities of seed surface are used successfully to identify other taxa of various ranks. Nevertheless,  using  microcharacters of seeds in phytosanitary diagnosis is usually handicapped by a long sample preparation and lack of necessary equipment of high dimension. These difficulties are easily coped with by a modern scanning electronic microscope Hitachi TM4000Plus, which allows to study dry samples in a low vacuum mode without an additional sample preparation. Using the method of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), there has been studied the micromorphology and ultrasculpture of seed surface of Fabаceae weed species – Se­ curigera varia (L.) Lassen and Coronilla scorpioides (L.) W.D.J. Koch – to estimate the diagnostic value of macrocharacters while their identification. The objects of the study were seed samples of academic herbarium collections (МНА, LE, VOR), as well as personal carpologic and herbarium materials collected by the authors in different regions of European Russia during the expeditions in 2021–2022. During the research, there have been identified main differences in the second ultrasculpture of lateral seed surface, in primary, secondary and tertiary ultrasculpture near the hilum, as well as the micropyle shape and hilum size. These differences can serve as new trustworthy diagnostic microcharacters while identifying the studied species. Applicability of these microcharacters in phytosanitary diagnosis is discussed in this paper.

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