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Palynological study of the genus Artemisia (Asteraceae) and its systematic implications

MUHAMMAD QASIM HAYAT^{1, 2*}, MUHAMMAD ASHRAF³, MIR AJAB KHAN, GHAZALAH YASMIN, NIGHAT SHAHEEN AND SHAZIA JABEEN⁴

Abstract: In this study, using light and scanning electron microscopy the palynological study of 22 taxa of the genus Artemisia has been carried out. Pollen grains, of all the taxa observed, are tricolporate, represented by globular symmetry (3-lobed round in polar view and ellipsoid ball shaped in equatorial view) and marked by reduced spinules on their surfaces. The presence of spinules is a diagnostic character for Artemisia limb of tribe Anthemideae of family Asteraceae. Eight micromorphological characters (pollen shape, spinules arrangement, exine sculpture, spinules base, polar length, equatorial width, exine thickness and colpus width) of pollen grains of Artemisia have been identified and pooled in analysis. In the resulting clusters, 5 groups within Artemisia have been recognized. This indicates that pollen morphology is good taxonomic marker and can be utilized for infrageneric classification of genus Artemisia.

¹Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

²Royal Botanical Garden, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

³NUST Center of Virology and Immunology, National University of Science & Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan

⁴National Center of Excellence in Geology, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan