Ethnobotanical Leaflets Starch Research Page

SCHLEIDEN'S (1849) CLASSIFICATION OF STARCH-GRAINS

I. Amorphous Starch.

II. Simple Grains. The majority of plants exhibit perfectly simple individual grains, among which doublets and triplets only occur as exceptions.

1. Roundish Bodies.
A. With the central cavity or hilum, apparently absent.
1. Quite small, almost spherical granules.
2. Large, irregular, knobby, often truncated multiangular grains.
B. With small roundish central cavities or hila.
(a) With a perceptible laminated formation.
3. Very large, rough grains, deformed as it were.
4. Ovoid granules.
5. Mussel-like granules.
6. Almost triangular.
(b) With an indistinct or deficient lamellated formation.
7. Rounded-off polyhedric grains.
8. Sharp-edged, polyhedric, very small grains.
(c) With an elongated central cavity.
9. Roundish or oval grains, in a dry condition, generally showing a star-like cleft in the inner layers.
(d) Perfectly hollow, apparently cup-like grains.
10. Very marked in the rhizome of Iris florentina and in kindred species.
2. Flatly compressed lenticular granules.
11. Sometimes with, sometimes without, a decided lamellated formation; sometimes with a central, or eccentric, or less rounded, or more elongated, or radiated torn-up cavity or hilum.
3. Perfectly flat discs.
12. With more distinct lamellae, in which it is, however, at times doubtful whether they pass entirely around or are only menisci laid over one another.
4. Elongated grains.
13. With an elongated central cavity in the milk-juice of the indigenous and a few of the tropical Euphorbiaceae.
5. Very irregular grains.
14. In the milky juice of many tropical Euphorbiaceae.
III. Compound Granules. Here we find a simple grain as an exception in the plant or part of the plant.
1. The separate grains in the compound grains without evident central cavity or hilum.
15. Compounded according to the simplest types in 2, 3, or 4.
16. Generally arranged regularly, seldom irregularly, and composed of from 2 to 6.
2. The separate grains in the compound grain having a distinct central cavity or hilum.
(a) All the parts of the grains of nearly the same size.
17. United according to simple types from 2 to 4. The central cavity or hilum small and roundish.
18. Combined according to simple types from 2 to 4. The central cavity or hilum large and very beautiful, opened in a star-like form.
19. Combined according to simple types from 2 to 4. The separate grains quite hollow, apparently cup-shaped.
20. Firmly combined, from 2 to 12 in number, in very irregular groups.
21. A large number, often as many as 30, of small roundish grains, very loosely grouped.
(b) Many smaller grains grown together upon one larger one.
22. In the pith of Sagua rumphii, etc., and generally in sago.
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Last updated: 4-November-98 / du