Contributions to the pollen morphology of the tribe Inuleae (subfamily Asteroideae-Compositae) in the flora of Egypt

摘要

The pollen morphology of 18 species of tribe Inuleae belonging to 10 genera was examined by light and scanning microscopy. Pollen grains usually trizono-colpate to trizonocolporate rarely 4-zonocolporate. Shape commonly oblate-spheroidal to spheroidal, with some suboblate types. Tectum echinate to echinulate. Tectum in-between the spines or spinules is sub-psilate, perforate to scabrate or microreticula-te. On the basis of the pollen class and the exine pattern, three distinct pollen types are recognized viz., Pollen type-I: Anvillea garcinii, Pollen type-II: Nauplius graveolens and Pollen type-Ill: Pulicaria. Within the pollen types, pollen characters are significantly sufficient for characterization of the species. An interesting correlation observed is that the taxa having slightly thick exine (4-7 mu m) with echinate or echinulate tectum.