Comparative investigation of two species Phlomoides binaludensis and Ph. Labiosiformis using palynological data

According to previous studies, palynological traits have critical role in separation and plant species differentiation.In this study, pollen morphology of Phlomoides binaludensis Salmaki & Joharchi and Ph. labiosiformis (Popov) Adylov, Kamelin & Makhm was investigated using Light Microscope (LM) and Scanning Electron Microscope(SEM). After material collecting from different regions of Khorassan-Razavi province, pollens of the two species were sampled and acetolysed using Erdtman’s method. The acetolysed pollens were photographed by using LM and SEM. The traits including the length of the polar axis (P), the length of the equatorial axis (E), P/E proportion, diameter length of polar view, exine thickness, and exine sculpture were evaluated. Results indicated that the exine sculpture is reticulate in both species. In addition, the length of polar axis, the length of equatorial ,6/1 ,1μm/axis, P/E proportion, diameter length of polar view and exine sculpture were 65/1±4/1μm, 39/5±4 2μm and 64/2±3/7μm, 43±6/1μm, 1/5, 59/3±2/9μm, 2/3±0/3μm, for ph. binaludensis and Ph./0±7/2 ,3μm/3±62 labiosiformis respectively. Based on our results, the two species under study cannot be distinguished by using .palynological characters