Pollen morphology of the genus Alchemilla L. (Rosaceae) in Iran

Abstract

This paper reports the morphological characters of 18 Iranian species of the genus Alchemilla using light and scanning electron microscopy. The pollen grains are monad, radially symmetrical, isopolar, or subisopolar; small to medium in size; triand tetracolporate; rectangular to cylindrical (from equatorial view) and triangular to circular (from polar view) in outline; and prolate-spheroidal to subprolate and prolate in shape. The exine ornamentation is psilate and microechinate. Based on the exine sculpturing and microechinate distribution pattern, three main types, four subtypes, and two categories of pollen grains were recognized. We used cluster analysis and principal component analysis to determine the potential contribution of pollen morphological characters to the species relationships. Our findings revealed the significance of palynological evidence in explaining the species relationship. The results of two multivariate analyses showed a close affinity among the seven studied species (A. amardica, A. sericata, A. fluminea, A. kurdica, A. hyrcana, A. sedelmeyeriana, and A. pesudocartalinica).

Initial Complete Chloroplast Genomes of Alchemilla (Rosaceae): Comparative Analysis and Phylogenetic Relationships

“…Initially, Alchemilla was categorized under tribe Sanguisorbinae by Hutchinson (1964) due to superficial similarity of floral traits but was later reclassified as Potentilleae following Schulze-Menz's (1964) observational concern on the anther structure and further confirmation through molecular characterization using nuclear ribosomal DNA and trnL/F region of chloroplast (cp) DNA (Eriksson et al, 2003). Morphologically, Alchemilla is distinguished from other Rosaceae genera by the silvery-silky white hair covering on the stems and the leaf surface, achene fruits that are hidden within the calyx tube, inconspicuous individuality, and small but fairly showy inflorescence (Graham, 1960;Faghir et al, 2014;Gehrke et al, 2016). Notwithstanding, circumscription within the genus remain poorly understood due to hybridization, autonomous apomixes, and polyploidization dominant in Alchemilla species (Izmailow, 1982;Czapik, 1996;Gehrke et al, 2008).…”

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

“…The basic pollen morphology of all three rosaceous subfamilies (see Potter et al 2007) and many genera/species of the tribes and subtribes within Rosaceae have been studied to some extent. Pollen types of the subfamily Rosoideae have been studied using mostly LM and SEM by Huang (1972), Hebda et al (1988aHebda et al ( , 1988b, Hebda and Chinnappa (1990), Jones et al (1995), Wang et al (1995), Beug (2004), Tahir (2005), Fujiki and Ozawa (2007), Chung et al (2010), Li et al (2011a), Miyoshi et al (2011), Wrońska-Pilarek (2011), Wrońska-Pilarek and Jagodziński (2011), Wrońska-Pilarek et al (2012, Perveen and Qaiser (2014) and Faghir et al (2015). The subfamily Dryadoideae has been studied by Hebda et al (1988b) and Beug (2004).…”

Pollen morphology and systematic significance of some Onosma L. species (Boraginaceae) distributed in pan Himalayan regions

“…Pollen data is now is widely used to recognize morphotypes (Huysmans et al, 1994Bigazzi & Selvi, 1998. It has been proved to be valuable in delimitation of taxa in several recent pollen morphological studies Tukkmen et al, 2010;Mehrabian et al, 2012;Faghir et al, 2015;Elkorady & Faried, 2017;Magda et al, 2017;Rashid et al, 2017and Umdale et al, 2017, Binzet et al, 2018 and others. Moreover, numerical analysis is one of the widely used approach in field of palynology.…”