Pollen Morphological Peculiarities of Selected Mimosoideae Taxa of Hainan Island and Their Taxonomic Relevance

Abstract

Mimosoideae is one of the taxonomically complex subfamilies of Fabaceae. Several studies have reported the pollen morphology of Mimosoideae taxa and their taxonomic relevance, but no such study was found specifically for Hainan Island in southern China. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the selected Mimosoideae taxa and explore the new palynological traits to support and strengthen the systematics of Mimosoideae using multiple microscopic techniques. The polar axis, equatorial diameter of the pollen grains, colpus length and width were measured. The smallest pollen grain size was found in Mimosa pudica (7.8 × 7.75 µm), while the largest pollen size was found in Albizia lebback (87.54 × 77.97 µm). Similarly, significant variation was found in the exine and colpus surface patterns. The subfamily Mimosoideae is considered eurypalynous because of the variation in pollen traits. In addition, variation was also found in the quantitative traits. Comparatively, the pollen features were found to be helpful at the genus and species levels, as well as in the correct identification and discrimination of the taxa. Hence, this study gives a detailed account of the pollen morphologies of certain selected taxa of Mimosoideae collected from different geographical regions on Hainan Island. The pollen morphological traits were proven to have significant taxonomic potential and can be used as additional tools for the correct identification and discrimination of Mimosoideae taxa. These results will provide the basis for further systematic studies.

Exploration of pollen traits and their taxonomic relevance in selected taxa of the subfamily Papilionoideae from Hainan Island, China

“…Pollen morphological traits are useful to solve the taxonomic problems related to the classification of plants (Bano et al 2019;Bahadur et al 2022b).…”

Pollen Visualization of Turkish Flora of Selected Plant Species under Light, Scanning, and Transmission Microscopy

“…Some characteristics are specific to the family, which could include the size of pollen, type of sculpturing, aperture type, etc., which become a key to identifying that family. Asteraceae angiosperms show the most diverse types of pollen, showing the maximum number of pollen characteristics compared to any other taxa [7,[16][17][18].…”

“…Palynology is also helpful for various uses, such as atmospheric pollen inspection, spore production, and the archaeological excavation of shipwrecks. Primarily, the investigation of morphological diversity in pollen is directly concerned with the classification of plants [18,19]. Palyno-morphological characteristics are fruitful for solving various taxonomic problems at species, genus, and family levels [7,[20][21][22].…”

Pollen Grain Variation among Some Trees of Fabaceae in New Damietta, Egypt.

“…The Fabaceae (or Leguminosae) family is among the most varied families, with members found in almost all ecological systems on the earth (Bahadur et al, 2022). The third largest angiosperm family, with species that are morphologically, physiologically, and environmentally diverse (APG III 2009;Schwarz et al, 2015;Werner et al, 2015).…”