[The morphological structure of salt gland and salt secretion in Aeluropus littoralis var. sinensis Debeaux].
The leaves of Aeluropus littoralis var. sinensis Debeaux were scanned with a scanning electron microscope, it showed that the upper-epidermis had almost the same number of salt glands as the lower-epidermis (Plate I-1, 2), and the salt gland is the typical bicelluar gland, which consists of a large basal cell inlaid into the epidermis and a small cap cell (Plate I-6). These salt glands were distributed mainly on the leaf veins, which favors the rapid collection of salts from the roots. Ion X-ray microanalysis indicated that the salt glands could effectively absorb Na(+) from the epidermal cells and mesophyllous cells (Table 1), then secreted Na(+) from the cap cells (Plate I-4), which would decrease the salinity of plant. After the plants were treated with various salts for 17 d, the ion contents of the leaves and the secretion were measured, and the results implied that salt glands had different selection in absorbing and secreting Na(+) , K(+) and Ca(2+), that is, the plants first selected K(+) when absorbing ions, while first selected Na(+) when sending ions out, but Ca(2+) was fewer in both absorbed and secreted, and the order of secretion of the three ions was found to be Na(+)>K(+)>Ca(2+) (Figs. 1-6). The secretion of Na(+) or three ions were respectively higher than that of leaves within 24 h (Figs. 1, 2, 7, 8), while K(+) situation was completely opposite with them (Figs. 3, 4). At the same time, the total ion content and composition inside the leaves remained more or less constant (Fig. 8).