Pollen morphology and variability of Polish native species from genus Salix L.

Abstract

The pollen morphology was studied of 24 Salix species native to Poland, which represented two subgenera, 17 sections and five subsections occurring in Poland. The aim of this study was to discover the taxonomical usefulness of the pollen features under analysis, and to investigate the ranges of their interspecific variability. In total, 720 pollen grains were studied. They were analysed with respect to seven quantitative features (length of the polar axis - P, equatorial diameter - E, length of the ectoaperture - Le, exine thickness - Ex, and P/E, Ex/P and Le/P ratios) and the following qualitative ones: pollen outline and exine ornamentation. The most important features were exine ornamentation (muri, lumina and margo) characters. The pollen features should be treated as auxiliary because they allowed to distinguish eight individual Salix species, and five groups of species. Statistical analysis of the studied traits indicated a high variability among the tested species. The most variable biometric features were P, E and Le, while lower variability occurred in P/E, Le/P and d/E.