Abstract: Pollen grains of the family Elaeocarpaceae in China have. been examined under LM and SEM. The results show that the different sizes of the pollen grains of the family range from 9 urn to 15am, 3 -colporate, os lalongate, under LM exine psilate and the stratification of exine is faint. The pollen morphologic characteris-tics of the family are so similar that the genera Elaeocarpus, Sloanea and Muntingia cannot be distinguished under LM. Under SEM, the genus Elaeocarpus is of three types of exine ornamentation and that of Sloanea is nearly the same as one type of Elaeocarpus, therefore the two genera cannot be distinguished even under SEM. Muntingia can be telled from the other two genera by its exine ornamentation but the difference among Muntingia and other two genera is not strong. The results above suggest that the members in the family be a rather natural group and should be treated as a distinct family rather than parts of the family Tiliaceae. The size and the exine ornamentation of the family are much different from those of other families in the order Malvales.

Key words: Pollen morphology