Acta Botanica Hungarica 54(3–4), pp. 355–375, 2012 DOI: 10.1556/ABot.54.2012.3–4.13 TAXONOMIC REVISION OF THE QUERCUS BRANTII COMPLEX (FAGACEAE) IN IRAN WITH EMPHASIS ON LEAF AND POLLEN MICROMORPHOLOGY P. PANAHI 1 , Z. JAMZAD 1 , M. R. POURMAJIDIAN 2 , A. FALLAH 2 M. POURHASHEMI 3 and H. SOHRABI 4 1 Botany Research Division, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands of Iran P. O. Box 13185–116, Tehran, Iran; E-mails: Panahi@rifr-ac.ir, Jamzad@rifr-ac.ir 2 Department of Forestry, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University P. O. Box 737, Sari, Iran; E-mails: m.pourmajidian@umz.ac.ir, afallah@umz.ac.ir 3 Forest Research Division, Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands of Iran P. O. Box 13185–116, Tehran, Iran; E-mail: Pourhashemi@rifr-ac.ir 4 Department of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources and Marine Sciences, University of Tarbiat Modares P. O. Box 46414–338, Noor, Iran; E-mail: hsohrabi@modares.ac.ir (Received 22 May, 2012; Accepted 15 July, 2012) Micromorphological characters of leaves and pollen grains of the Quercus brantii complex (including seven species and five varieties), as the main species in the Zagros Forests of Iran, were studied by scanning electron microscopy. In order to define the diagnostic value of leaves and pollen grains for species delimitation, multivariate discriminant analysis was applied to micromorphological quantitative features. The results were combined with qual- itative characters of pollen grains to separate the examined taxa. Five taxa were confirmed within this complex: Q. brantii var. brantii, Q. brantii var. belangeri, Q. persica, Q. saii and Q. ungeri. The macro- and micromorphological characters of the accepted taxa and their geo- graphical distribution were described. Based on the present results, leaf epidermal charac- teristics and pollen features are useful taxonomic characters that can help to delimit differ- ent taxa within the Q. brantii complex in Iran. Key words: multivariate discriminant analysis, pollen, Quercus brantii, SEM, taxonomy, trichome INTRODUCTION The Fagaceae comprises a large and important family of trees and shrubs. Quercus L. is the largest genus in this family with an estimated 300 to 600 spe- cies in the world (Camus 1936–1954, Lawrence 1951, Soepadmo 1972, Johnson et al. 2002). This genus has been studied often, but, because of its immense size and wide distribution, few have studied the genus in its entirety (Jones 1986). The taxonomy of Quercus is extremely complex (Burger 1974) owing to great 0236–6495/$ 20.00 © 2012 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest