Pollen morphology and character evolution in the subtribe Neoguillauminiinae (Euphorbiaceae)

Abstract

A pollen morphological study was conducted using light and scanning electron microscopy involving six species belonging to the subtribe Neoguillauminiinae. Pollen samples from the six species are tricolporate, and the colpi are surrounded by broad margo, with the widest width in the equator, narrower toward the pole, and rounded at the end. Based on the pollen morphology, pollen of the species in the subtribe Neoguillauminiinae were divided into four types: the Neoguillauminia type (T1), the C. collinus type (T2), the C. casuarinoides type (T3) and the C. paucifolius type (T4). The generic divergence between Neoguillauminia and Calycopeplus was supported by the pollen characters of the size, amb and lumina shape. In particular, the traits of rounded shape in the outline of the polar view and circular lumina, which appear only in the pollen grains of N. cleopatra, support the recognition of Neoguillauminia as a monotypic genus. Calycopeplus oligandrus and C. paucifolius had the same reticulate pattern of pollen grains, supporting Forster’s hypothesis that these two species are closely related. On the other hand, the close relationship between the morphologically similar C. collinus and C. casuarinoides was not supported by the pollen characters. Within the subtribe there are two equally parsimonious hypotheses regarding the evolution of exine characters. The first consists of two changes of microreticulate through parallel evolution from the primitive reticulate exine, and the second is that the microreticulate pattern is differentiated from the reticulate state and then reversed to reticulate pollen grains.