Off-campus UMass Amherst users: To download dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your UMass Amherst user name and password.
Non-UMass Amherst users, please click the view more button below to purchase a copy of this dissertation from Proquest.
(Some titles may also be available free of charge in our Open Access Dissertation Collection, so please check there first.)
Palynology and systematics of the Flacourtiaceae
Abstract
Pollen of 207 species in 57 genera of Flacourtiaceae and of Peridiscus, Stachyurus and Neumannia was examined by scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy. Variation from the predominant small to medium-sized tricolporate grains with microperforate to microreticulate sculpturing is limited, with a similar range of variation occurring within most tribes, genera and sometimes species. The genera Berberidopsis and Streptothamnus appear to represent a separate phylogenetic line which has retained simple pollen apertures and other non-palynological plesiomorphic character-states, including a spirally arranged perianth and exclusively scalariform vessel element perforation plates. Within the rest of Flacourtiaceae, small to medium-sized, tricolporoidate, microperforate to microreticulate grains with vaguely defined endoapertures are considered plesiomorphic. Cladistic analysis based on pollen morphological and non-palynological characters indicates a high degree of homoplasy within the family that is reflected in the pollen sculpturing. Phylogenetic relationships of Peridiscaceae, Stachyuraceae and Neumanniaceae to Flacourtiaceae are not resolved by pollen morphological characters.
Subject Area
Botany
Recommended Citation
Bekech, Marilyn Margaret, "Palynology and systematics of the Flacourtiaceae" (1993). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9408257.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9408257