Morphology and ultrastructure of pollen grain in some genera of Hyacinthaceae and their toxonomic importance

In this study, morphological characteristics of eleven species of genera Autonoe, Fessia, Othocallis, Prospero, Scilla and Zagrosia were studied by Light Microscopy (LM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and two species of F. bisotunensis and Z. persica was performed by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Based on the results, the general shape of the pollen grains was classified as oblate and peroblate and medium to large pollen grains. Exine ornamentation varied at equatorial grained surface, near groove and intra-groove decorations and was microreticulate, microreticulate-fossulate, microreticulate-reticulate, reticulate-microreticulate, fossulate, microtuberculate, coarse-grained (macrotuberculate-reticulate), reticulate-tuberculate and a tuberculate was observed. In two species of F. bisotunensis and Z. persica, there was an external exit layer of semitectate and an endogenous exine layer in Z. persica. The dendrogram obtained from pollen grain qualitative characters were placed these taxa in three groups and six subgroups and the subgroups were partly matched by genera level. F. bisotunensis and Z. persica that belonged to two different genera were placed in one subgroup and the pollen grain ultrastructure was different between them. Therefore, the pollen grain morphological characters with ultrastructure characters have valuable role in the genus level taxonomy.