Pollen and Achene Morphology of Some Centaurea L. Taxa (Asteraceae), Turkey

Abstract

Centaurea is one of the largest genus of the family Asteraceae. Turkey is one of the distribution areas of this genus. This genus represented with 194 taxa in Turkey, which 105 of them are endemics. In this study, pollen morphology and achene micro and macro morphology of 5 taxa belonging to Centaurea (C. iberica, C. virgata, C. cheirolopha, C. urvelli subsp. urvelli, C. solstitialis subsp. solstitialis) were investigated. The aim of the study was to determine taxonomic value of pollen and achene micro features. Pollen grains of Centaurea taxa observed as isopolar, with tricolporate aperture and subprolate and prolate-spheroidal pollen shape. Polar axis ranges between 30.4-49.9 µm while equatorial axis between 25.7-41 µm. The achene shape was observed as ovoid and oblong in studied taxa. SEM showed that the achene surface had a striate sculpture and was depressed on both lateral surfaces, without rare hairs. The micro characters contain polar axis, equatorial axis, pollen shape, pollen surface ornamentation, intine and exine thickness, achene length, Pappus length, achene surface ornamentation was determined as important features for systematics of taxa.