The purpose of this work was to evaluate the effect of glyphosate in the anatomical and morphologic structures of leaves and stems of two species of Commelina, and to investigate the involvement of the starch reservation in larger tolerance to glyphosate of C. diffusa in relation to C. benghalensis. From 10 pots for each species, 9 were applied with 1440 g ha-1 of glyphosate and one was used as check. Fragments of stems and leaves were collected and fixed at time zero (before the application of glyphosate), 15, 30, and 50 days after the application (DAA). The histological slides were obtained according to the usual methodology, with emphasis to the application of the lugol reagent to check starch. Grades from 1 to 5 were given according to the growing intensity of the reaction. In leaves, the epidermal cells and the vascular tissues are just a little bit affected. How seer the mesophyll is completely disorganized, resulting in cell death. Injures are more obvious stems and leaves of C. benghalensis. Morphologically, clorotic regions and deceased spots all over the leaf surface lead to leaf fall after 15° DAA in C. benghalensis. In C. diffusa, the leaf abscission is delayed, despite the injuries are almost the same. Both species presented higher quantities of starch in the node region than the internode. C. benghalensis has few and small starch grains, compared to many and big grains in C. diffusa. In response to glyphosate application , there was a variation in the number of starch grains in the stem to the time after the application. C. diffusa will always have larger possibilities to recover after glyphosate application because of its larger reservation of starch.
dayflowers; tolerance; chemical control
