Plant Diversity ›› 2015, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (06): 657-682.DOI: 10.7677/ynzwyj201515044

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Pollen Morphology of Plants from the Hengduan Mountains and Their Ecological Significance

 ZHENG  Xin-1, MIN  Yun-Jiang-1, XU  Bo-2, SUN  Hang-3, ZHOU  Zhong-Ze-1   

  1. 1 School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Anhui University, Anhui Biodiversity Information Center,
    Hefei 230601, China; 2 College of Forestry, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming  650204, China;
    3 Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China
  • Received:2015-03-16 Online:2015-11-25 Published:2015-09-10
  • Supported by:

    The Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20123401110005), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41072251) and the State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS, No. 113106)

Abstract:

Pollen morphology of selected taxa from the Hengduan Mountains, Southwest China are investigated in the present study. Fortyeight taxa (flowering in the summer, 46 species and 2 varieties) of 43 genera belonging to 27 families were observed by light and scanning electron microscopy. Pollen morphology is described in detail. Two pollen shapes are mainly found in these species: subprolate to prolate (271%) and prolate (25%). Spheroidal, subspheroidal to subprolate, suboblate and tetrad shapes can also be found in some species. Aperture type is mostly tricolporate, with a percentage of 438, and also contains tricolpate, pantoporate, stephanocolpate, 3colporoid, 6 colpate, monocolpate. The most common ornamentation is finely reticulate, with a percentage of 50. Other exine ornamentations, such as coarsely reticulate, finely granulate, smooth, spinulose are also observed. The palynological documentation of these species will provide the modern palynological basis for paleopalynological studies of the Quaternary Strata. On the basis of pollen morphology characters, identification features of some species in the same families were discussed according to the results of cluster analysis used by SPSS. The ecological significance was also discussed based on the ecological properties of these taxa.

Key words: Pollen morphology, Ecological significance, Hengduan Mountains

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