Exploring microscopic pollen morphology in herbaceous Flora: Insights and analysis using scanning electron microscopy

Microscopic techniques can be applied to solve taxonomic problems in the field of plant systematic and are extremely versatile in nature. This study was focused on the new approaches to visualizing the imaging, tool to cover the micro-structural techniques applied to the pollen study of flowers. The current research was proposed to evaluate microscopic pollen morphological attributes using light and scanning electron microscopy of herbaceous flora from Samarkand, Uzbekistan. A total of 13 herbaceous species, classified into 11 different families were collected, pressed, and identified, and then acetolyzed their pollen to visualize under light and scanning electron microscopy. Herbaceous flora can be characterized by small to very large-sized pollen morphotypes presenting four types of pollen shapes, prolate spheroidal (six species), spheroidal (three species) and prolate and oblate (two species each). The polar diameter and equatorial distance were calculated maximum in Hibiscus syriacus 110.55 and 111.2 μm respectively. Pollen of six different types was found namely tricolporate pollen observed in seven species, tricolpate and pantoporate in two species each, sulcate in Gagea olgae and hexacolpate pollen was examined in Salvia rosmarinus. Exine ornamentation of pollen was examined tectate perforate, verrucate-reticulate, micro-reticulate, reticulate, reticulate-cristatum, gemmate-echinate, echinate-perforate, perforate-striate, rugulate, rugulate-striate, bi-reticulate, reticulate-perforate and perforate-micro-reticulate showing great variations. Exine thickness was noted highest for Rosa canina 2.9 μm and minimum in Punica granatum 0.65 μm. This study of pollen imaging visualization of herbaceous flora contributes to the opportunity for the taxonomic evaluation of and fills knowledge gaps in studies of herbaceous flora identification using classical microscopic taxonomic tools for their accurate identification. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Pollen in unexplored herbaceous flora of the Samarkand region was studied with light and scanning electron microscopic pollen study. There is a high variation in observed pollen micromorphological characters. Pollen microscopic morphology has important taxonomic value for the identification of herbaceous species.