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During anatomical investigations of Centaurea rupestris L., an Illyrian-Adriatic endemic species, the presence of inulin crystals was established not only in plant material preserved in fixing fluid FAA, but unexpectedly also in tissues of living plants. The latter phenomenon was rather rare, because the crystals were observed only in some of the samples of C. rupestris. In addition, inulin was found only in the fresh stem but not in the leaf tissue. In those stems, crystallization of inulin in the form of grains, of larger irregular crystals or spherocrystals, was noticed in the pith and pith ray cells, and inside the tracheary elements. The appearance of inulin crystals in some of the living specimens could be explained ba desiccation of the plants growing in particularly dry places inside the habitat under the Mediterranean climate and soil conditions. In the investigated Balkan endemic C. fritschii Hayek, with area distribution in continental climate, inulin crystals were never detected in living plants. |
