This paper reports the morphological characters of 18 Iranian species of the genus Alchemilla using light and scanning electron microscopy. The pollen grains are monad, radially symmetrical, isopolar, or subisopolar, small to medium in size, triand tetracolporate, rectangular to cylindrical (from equatorial view) and triangular to circular (from polar view) in outline and prolate-spheroidal to subprolate and prolate in shape. | Turkish Journal of Botany Turk J Bot (2015) 39: 267-279 © TÜBİTAK doi: Research Article Pollen morphology of the genus Alchemilla L. (Rosaceae) in Iran 1, 2 1 1 Marzieh Beygom FAGHIR *, Farideh ATTAR , Robabeh Shahi SHAVVON , Atefeh MEHRMANESH 1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran 2 Central Herbarium of Tehran University and School of Biology, University College of Science, Tehran, Iran Received: Accepted: Published Online: Printed: Abstract: This paper reports the morphological characters of 18 Iranian species of the genus Alchemilla using light and scanning electron microscopy. The pollen grains are monad, radially symmetrical, isopolar, or subisopolar; small to medium in size; triand tetracolporate; rectangular to cylindrical (from equatorial view) and triangular to circular (from polar view) in outline; and prolate-spheroidal to subprolate and prolate in shape. The exine ornamentation is psilate and microechinate. Based on the exine sculpturing and microechinate distribution pattern, three main types, four subtypes, and two categories of pollen grains were recognized. We used cluster analysis and principal component analysis to determine the potential contribution of pollen morphological characters to the species relationships. Our findings revealed the significance of palynological evidence in explaining the species relationship. The results of two multivariate analyses showed a close affinity among the seven studied species (A. amardica, A. sericata, A. fluminea, A. kurdica, A. hyrcana, A. sedelmeyeriana, and A. pesudocartalinica). Key words: Alchemilla, Rosaceae, palynological characters, numerical analysis, Iran 1. Introduction The genus Alchemilla L. (Rosaceae), with ca. 1000 species, is one of the most species-rich Holarctic plant genera, widespread mainly in western Eurasia. Some species of the genus
