The ultrastructure of Cynodon salt glands: secreting and nonsecreting

Experimental conditions were established in which the salt glands in the leaves of Bermuda grass could be identified as secreting or nonsecreting. These glands consist of two cells, an outer cap cell and an inner basal cell, and at the ultrastructural level, three primary differences existed between secreting and nonsecreting cells. In the secreting glands, these were a tubular elaboration of the so-called partitioning membranes of the basal cell, an expansion of the overarching cuticle of the glands, and an increase in vacuolation within the cap cell. All of these changes may relate to the secretion process.