Published in Scientific Bulletin. Series F. Biotechnologies, Vol. XXV, Issue 2
Written by Monica ENACHE, Marius HANGAN
In Romania there are about 1000 melliferous plant species, from these about 200 are considered important for beekeeping. Based on the descriptions found in the literature, a classification according to the type and size of the hydrated pollen grains of these melliferous plant species was attempted in the present study. The melliferous species that were analysed belong to 57 plant families, and more than half of them have medium size pollen grains. Several pollen types were noted: inaperturate; monoporatae; triporate; tetraporate; pentaporate; periporate; tricolpate; hexacolpate; pericolpate; monosulcate; tricolporate; tetracolporate; pericolporate; heteroaperturate (pseudocolpus); spiraperturate; syncolpate; bisaccate; pollen grains in groups (tetrad, polyad). From these, tricolporate pollen is the most frequent (about half of the species), followed by tricolpate pollen. These two morphological characters of the pollen grain of some melliferous species present in Romania were used to determine the species that show similar traits for identification purposes when using the light microscope technique. Pollen shapes, symmetry, wall thickness and surface patterns can further help group the plant species and narrow the search, when pollen identification is carried out.
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