Pollen morphology in Turkish Crataegus (Rosaceae)

Abstract

Oybak Dçnmez E. 2008. Pollen morphology in Turkish Crataegus (Rosaceae). Pollen morphology of 20 Turkish Crataegus L. taxa (Rosaceae) was studied using light and scanning electron microscopy to assess whether pollen traits are of taxonomic value in this species group. The most frequent aperture type was tricolporate, but nontricolporate pollen grains (trisyncolporate, tetracolporate and inaperturate) were also present in many taxa, and pollen grains of varying aperture types were even found on the same plant. There was considerable variation within and between plants in pollen size (polar axis and equatorial axis ranging from 15 to 65 mm) and in aperture size, but no consistent differences between the taxa examined. Exine patterns varied from a striate-perforate type (the most common one) to rugulate, perforate and microreticulate types. Again, most taxa represented by several specimens in this study had variable patterns. These results imply that pollen traits cannot be used to distinguish Turkish Crataegus taxa or to draw conclusions about their taxonomic affinities.

Investigation on the pollen morphology of traditional cultivars of Prunus species in Sicily

“…Rosaceae family including Turkish Crataegus [28] and some members of rosaceous and Prunoideae in Canada [24][25][26]. Our results showed similar arrangement of the muri organisation in P. armeniaca, P. avium and some cultivars of P. domestica in which they were roughly parallel but too sloped compared to the polar axis and sometimes curve; in P. dulcis and in P. persica subsp.…”

Combined LM and SEM study of the middle Miocene (Sarmatian) palynoflora from the Lavanttal Basin, Austria: part IV. Magnoliophyta 2 – Fagales to Rosales

“…The subfamily Dryadoideae has been studied by Hebda et al (1988b) and Beug (2004). The pollen of the subfamily Spiraeoideae has been studied by Huang (1972), Hebda et al (1988aHebda et al ( , 1988b, Jones et al (1995), Wang et al (1995), Beug (2004), Bednorz et al (2005), Dönmez (2008), Joneghani (2008), Sorkheh et al (2008), Vafadar et al (2010), Zamani et al (2010), Li et al (2011a), Miyoshi et al (2011), Geraci et al (2012, Ćalić et al (2013), Shi et al (2013) and Perveen and Qaiser (2014). Based on these studies, the Rosaceae pollen grains from Lavanttal can be affiliated with Prunus.…”

Classification and phylogenetic analysis of Chinese hawthorn assessed by plant and pollen morphology

“…Some species are grown for food or medicine in Asia, North and Central America, and Mediterranean countries, whereas others serve as ornamental plants in Europe and North America (Christensen, 1983(Christensen, , 1992Dönmez, 2008). The genus Crataegus traditionally belongs to the Rosaceae family, subfamily Maloideae, tribe Crataegeae (Phipps, 1988;Phipps et al, 1991;Christensen, 1992).…”

“…Dönmez (2008) suggested that the taxonomy of Crataegus is problematic owing to biological, historical, and many other factors. In particular, the taxonomic problems and the description of a large number of new species are the result of intergeneric hybridization (Phipps, 2005).…”

“…The roles of hybridization and apomixes have been considered to be minimal. The systematics of the genus is still in question, not only because numerous species have been described by several authors, but the circumscription of the species has varied widely (Christensen, 1992;Dönmez, 2008;Wrońska-Pilarek et al, 2013). Depending on the species concept employed, there is no general consensus on the number of species.…”