Several studies have demonstrated the usefulness of leaf epidermal, and spore morphological characters in the taxonomy of genus Asplenium. However, works on the Pakistani species of Asplenium are not existent. With the objective to verify the efficacy of leaf epidermal and spore morphological traits, the leaf epidermis and spore morphology in nine Asplenium species occurring in Malakand division was studied. The spores were studied under light microscope (LM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), whereas for leaf epidermal anatomy, the LM was used. The spores are monolete, ellipsoidal in shape, the equatorial and polar diameter ranges between 28.3 and 50.2 × 27.6 and 45.8 μm. The exospore thickness varied from 0.5 to 3.8 μm. The perispore is 0.8–3.5 μm thick, ornamented, and morphologically variable. The spores characters specifically the perispore ornamentation are useful in distinguishing species within the genus. The irregular spore shape and unusual development of perispore wall surface characterize aborted spores in the species of Asplenium × alternifolium. The most informative quantitative characters appeared to be length and width of epidermal cells, and length and width of stomata were useful to distinguish species. The most significant qualitative characters to distinguish species were the anticlinal wall pattern. Our study has shown that considerable variations exist in the leaf epidermis of Asplenium species, at least some of which has taxonomic significance. We confirmed the prevalent taxonomic value of stomatal and epidermal cells traits. The leaf epidermal anatomy and spore morphological features showed to be a good source of information for taxonomy of the genus Asplenium.

中文翻译：

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孢子形态和叶表皮解剖学作为鉴定来自巴基斯坦马拉坎德地区 Asplenium 物种的分类学来源。

几项研究已经证明了叶表皮和孢子形态特征在Asplenium属的分类学中的有用性。然而，关于巴基斯坦种Asplenium的工作并不存在。为了验证叶表皮和孢子形态特征的有效性，研究了发生在马拉坎德分部的9种Asplenium物种的叶表皮和孢子形态。在光学显微镜 (LM) 和扫描电子显微镜 (SEM) 下研究孢子，而对于叶表皮解剖学，使用 LM。孢子单核，椭圆形，赤道径和极径28.3～50.2 ×27.6 和 45.8 微米。外生孢子厚度从 0.5 到 3.8 μm 不等。周孢子厚 0.8-3.5 μm，有装饰，形态多变。孢子特征，特别是孢子装饰，可用于区分属内的物种。不规则的孢子形状和周孢子壁表面的异常发育是Asplenium × alternifolium物种中流产孢子的特征。信息量最大的数量特征似乎是表皮细胞的长度和宽度，气孔的长度和宽度有助于区分物种。区分物种的最重要的定性特征是背斜壁图案。我们的研究表明，Asplenium的叶表皮存在相当大的差异种，至少其中一些具有分类学意义。我们证实了气孔和表皮细胞特征的普遍分类学价值。叶表皮解剖学和孢子形态学特征表明是铁杉属分类学的良好信息来源。