Pollen morphology of cucurbitaceae using microscopic techniques for accurate taxa identification
摘要
The present research work investigates the palynological characteristics of 24 species belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae using scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy. Pollen grains of the selected plant species showed diverse shapes, including spheroidal, oblate-spheroidal, prolate-spheroidal, prolate, oblate, sub-prolate, and sub-oblate shapes. The investigated pollen apertures included tricolporate, triporate, pantoporate, porate, trizonocolporate, and tricolpate types. Quantitative and qualitative characteristics of pollen grains were measured using light microscopy. Cucurbita pepo L. exhibited the largest polar diameter (173.25 µm), while Cucumis melo L. var. inodorus had the smallest (40.37 µm). Similarly, Cucurbita pepo L. had the largest equatorial diameter (166.25 µm), whereas Cucumis melo L. var. inodorus exhibited the smallest (31.62 µm). The longest colpi were found in Cucurbita pepo L. (66.37 µm), while the shortest were observed in Luffa aegyptiaca L. (20.50 µm). Luffa aegyptiaca L. also displayed the widest colpi (18.37 µm), whereas Coccinia cordifolia L. exhibited the narrowest (3.87 µm). The thickest exine was measured in Citrullus colocynthis L. (8.62 µm), while the thinnest was recorded in Cucumis melo var. inodorus L. (1.50 µm). The qualitative and quantitative pollen data provided in this study offer valuable insights into the systematics and taxonomy of the Cucurbitaceae family.