Palyno‐morphological characteristics of gymnosperm flora of pakistan and its taxonomic implications with LM and SEM methods

Abstract

The present study is intended to assess gymnosperms pollen flora of Pakistan using Light Microscope (LM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) for its taxonomic significance in identification of gymnosperms. Pollens of 35 gymnosperm species (12 genera and five families) were collected from its various distributional sites of gymnosperms in Pakistan. LM and SEM were used to investigate different palyno-morphological characteristics. Five pollen types (i.e., Inaperturate, Monolete, Monoporate, Vesiculate-bisaccate and Polyplicate) were observed. Six In equatorial view seven types of pollens were observed, in which ten species were sub-angular, nine species were Traingular, six species were Perprolate, three species were Rhomboidal, three species were semi-angular, two species were rectangular and two species were prolate. While five types of pollen were observed in polar view, in which ten species were Spheroidal, nine species were Angular, eight were Interlobate, six species were Circular, two species were Elliptic. Eighteen species has rugulate and 17 species has faveolate ornamentation. Eighteen species has verrucate and 17 have gemmate type sculpturing. The data was analysed through cluster analysis. The study showed that these palyno-morphological features have significance value in classification and identification of gymnosperms. Based on these different palyno-morphological features, a taxonomic key was proposed for the accurate and fast identifications of gymnosperms from Pakistan.

Pollen morphology of subfamily Caryophylloideae (Caryophyllaceae) and its taxonomic significance

“…Palynology can be useful in the taxonomic identification of many plant groups (Ashfaq et al, ; Clark, Brown, & Mayes, ; Khan et al, ). The palyno‐morphological characters play vital role in the identification, classification and species delimitation in family Caryophyllaceae (Perveen & Qaiser, ; Erdtman, ).…”

“…The palyno‐morphological characters play vital role in the identification, classification and species delimitation in family Caryophyllaceae (Perveen & Qaiser, ; Erdtman, ). These micro‐palyno‐morphological features considered supplementary to the general and are very important in evolutionary plant biology (Khan et al, ). Pollen morphological characters used as additional features for the systematic study of plant groups.…”

Light microscopy of Pakistani Berberis leaf cuticles and its taxonomic implications

“…To clarify the taxonomic status of plants, successful anatomical studies are required to aid in the identification of different species (Evert, ). Primarily, leaf epidermal features such as size and shape of the stomatal complex, orientation and structural specialties of the epidermal cells wall and specific types of trichomes are important (Dickison, ; Khan et al, ; Khan et al, ). Although, foliar epidermal characters may be influenced by environmental conditions (Casson & Hetherington, ) but a single character is insufficient to delimit Berberis species where numerous characteristics are required for complete identification.…”

“…B. psodoumbellata possess polygonal to trigonal epidermal cells on the adaxial surface and irregular to polygonal on the abaxial surface with 3–4 and 4–6 lobes on adaxial and abaxial surface, respectively. Counting the number of lobes of epidermal cells has been reported to be taxonomically useful in certain plant groups (Khan et al, ).…”

“…Research efforts have been made in the field of taxonomy (Ahrendt, ) palynology, floral anatomy, (Rao et al, ) and DNA barcoding, nevertheless taxonomic problems still persist in the genus (Roy et al, ). Different anatomical characters, such as stomata size, morphology, trichomes, epidermal cells, cell wall pattern, and so forth are of immense importance in the identification of taxonomically complex genera particularly at species level (Khan, Ahmad, Zafar, & Ullah, ; Khan et al, ; Khan et al, ; Xiang, Dong, Peng, & Liu, ). In addition, foliar epidermal characters have been used to identify species of a number of families (Ashfaq et al, ; Gul et al, ; Khan et al, ; Stefano, Papini, & Brighigna, ) while different anatomical and morphological characters are used for a long time for the identification of species, genera, and families (Li, Liao, Bai, Zhou, & Wu, ).…”