Pollen morphology of Acinos miller species growing in Turkey

Abstract

The pollen morphology of six taxa of the genus Acinos Miller has been examined under scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and a description of each taxon has been given. Acinos pollen is stephanocolpate (hexacolpate). Two main exine sculpturing types, foveolate-reticu late (only in subspecies of A. troodi) and reticulate have been defined. The dimension for the polar length ranges between 25.8-47.4 mu m, equatorial width 24.5-34.4 mu m, colpus length 20.0-40.5 mu m and colpus width 1.2-2.5 mu m. The shape is mostly subprolate to prolate, seldomly prolate-spheroidal. The results reveal rather uniform morphological features, however fine details are characteristic to differentiate the pollen taxa. Acinos pollen also share some common morphological features with the other Lamiaceae pollen.