Phytoliths of leaf blades of Oryza were studied by light and scanning electron microscopy in order to assign the diagnostic character and taxonomic key for the genus. Some phytoliths such as stomatal apparatus, long-cell and short-cell, existing at the same position on the abaxial side of leaf blade, were intensively investigated because of their various forms documented in a previous study. These characters have value either for testing infrageneric classification or for identifying taxa within the genus. Stomatal phytolith is formed by integration of several kinds of sources, such as the guard and subsidiary cell and the papillae. The stomatal phytolith, characterized by not only the absence and presence of phytolith originated by the papillae developed on the guard and subsidiary cell but also their pattern of arrangement, shows various morphologies, and these features have congruent with the infrageneric classification such as section and/or series. Long-cell phytolith is characterized by the absence/presence, arrangement and morphology of phytoliths originated by the papillae on the cell surface. These features may hardly have any systematic relevance within the genus, but contain some informations for identifying of species. All of short-cell phytoliths found are silica body. They form various shapes like cross, bilobate, saddlelike and trilobate, and these features are consistent with infrageneric classification such as section and/or series. Also, some characters, the absence/presence of band of short cell phytolith within costal strip, the absence/presence of saddlelike phytolith within intercostal strip and the number of band of short cell phytolith within costal strip are various according to taxa, but these features do not fall into infrageneric classification. Some taxonomic keys on the phytoliths of stomatal, long-cell and short-cell were developed by their features, and the agreement between these characters and infrageneric classifications was also discussed.
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