Pollen Morphology of Six Species Previously Placed in Malcolmia (Brassicaceae) in Turkey

Abstract

The genus Malcolmia R. Br. (Brassicaceae) is taxonomically problematic and some of its species have recently been transferred to the genera Strigosella Boiss. and Zuvanda Dvorak. In this study, pollen morphology of some species of Malcolmia, Strigosella and Zuvanda, previously placed in illalcolmia genus, were examined under scanning electron microscope (SEM), in order to determine the significance of pollen features as taxonomic characters. The results reveal rather uniform morphological features, however fine details are characteristic to distinguishing pollen grains in the species of the genus. The pollen grains in three genera are tricolpate and the surface sculpturing type is reticulate. The basic shape of the pollen grains in species studied is euprolate, subprolate-euprolate and euprolate-perprolate. While pollen grains of S. africana is the smallest in all examined species, M. chic is the.biggest. However, three genera can be easily separated by the length of the polar and equatorial axes themselves.