Pollen morphology of wild roses from Pakistan

ABSTRACT

The results of pollen morphological studies [LM] of 9 Pakistani Rosa species [R. beggeriana, R. brunonii, R. ecae, R. foetida, R. lacerans, R. macrophylla, R.. multiflora, R. nanothamnus and R. webbiana] have been presented in this paper. All examined pollen grains. are small, heteropolar, and tricolporate. A11 grains except R. foetida tend to have very long colpi. Constricted equatorial bridges make the Pori invisible in most of the species. The sculpture of grain confirms the striate pattern. The palynological features of exine thickness, shape, equatorial and polar diameter of pollen grains and length of colpi are found useful criterion for species delimitation while sculpturing and size at LM turned out to be a poor criterion. A dichotomous key is constructed for the species identification using the characters that has been studied