J Syst Evol ›› 2000, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (1): 43-52.

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

A study on pollen morphology of the genus Vitis L.

WANG Xiao-Dong, CHEN Sing-Chi, Li Chao-Luan   

  • Published:2000-01-10

Abstract: The pollen grains of 32 species, 1 subspecies and 4 varieties of Vitis and 1 species of Muscadinia were scanned with Hitachi S-800 scanning electron microscope and described in the present paper. In Vitis, the pollen morphology is found to be valuable for the identification of species, though it is of little significance in supraspecific classification and systematic consideration. The ornamentation of Vitis could be divided into four types: ( 1 ) The pollen grains are oblate or rarely spheroidal (P/E =0.97 ~ 1.08) in shape, with colpi wide enough to show dense granulae inside. The pollen grains of V. coignetiae Pull. Ex Planch. belong to this type. (2) The pollen grains are prolate to subprolate (P/E = 1.25 ~ 1.76 ), with sparse granulae within the colpi. This type includes l0 species, 1 subspecies and 3 varieties, such as V. hui Cheng etc. (3) The pollen grains of V. romanetii Roman du Caill. ex Planch. and V. davidii (Roman du Caill. ) Foex. var. ferruginea Merr. et Chun are prolate (P/E= 1.87 ~ 2.1), with colpi narrow and linear-shaped, but rhombic in the equational region. (4) The pollen grains are prolate or perprolate (P/E= 1.30 ~ 2. 0), with narrow and linear-shaped colpi. The species with this type of pollen grains are Muscadiniarotundifolia (Michx.) Small and 20 species of Vitis.

Key words: Vitis, Pollen Morphology, Ornamentation