Abstract: Pollen morphology of38taxa of Loranthaceae from China，and of eigh t taxa from Indone-sia and Australia was examined under light microscope（LM）a nd scanning electron microscope（SEM）. Based on exine ornamentation characterist ics，Loranthaceae can be subdivided into two groups that are consistent with the two tribes in the family: Elytrantheae and Lorantheae. In the tribe Elytrantheae， pollen grains with3-syncolpate aperture and exine of blunt-tipped spines and str iate ornamentation may represent the primitive type while those with diplocolpor ate and diplosyn-demicolpate apertures are of derived nature. In the tribe Loran theae，pollen grains with isopolarity，3-syncolpate apertures，and granulate exi ne ornamentation may represent the primitive type，while those with heteropolari ty，parasyndemicolpate-syndemicolpate，3-colpate and colpate-brevicolpate or por ate apertures，scabrate and indistinctly granulate ornamentation represent the d erived state. Pollen data suggest three basic groups in the tribe Lorantheae acco rding to the aperture and ornamen-tation characteristics: Group I is composed of Dendrophtho，Scurrula，Taxillus，and Tolypanthus;Group II and Group III contain only Helixanthera and Loranthus respectively. Group I is relatively primitive in terms of pollen morphology. Among genera in Group I，there are only insignifican t dif-ferences in pollen morphology between Taxillus and Scurrula，two genera w ith a close relationship;both Group II and Group III are relatively derived in t erms of pollen morphology.

Key words: Loranthaceae, pollen morphology, exine ornamentation, aperture.