Journal of Advanced Plant Sciences 2016. 8 (1): 22-29 Published online: 20 September 2016 RESEARCH ARTICLE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Morpho-taxonomical studies of some Polyporate pollen grains Shivangee Singh 1 • S. K. Chaturvedi* 2 1 Department of Botany, GGV, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh (495009), * 2 Department of Botany, Nagaland University, Lumami-798627, India Received: 9 April 2016 /Accepted: 11 September 2016 © Botanical Society of Assam 2016 Abstract Pollen morphology of 24 species of 14 genera belonging to four families, viz., Amaranthaceae, Convolvulaceae, Malvaceae and Nyctaginaceae has been studied. The pollen grains of these taxonomically unrelated taxa, exhibit variation in colour, size, shape, exine ornamentation as well as in the number, position and character (NPC) of pores, but the pollen grains were usually polyporate and a few are polyzonocolporate. The pollen grains in the taxa of the family Amaranthaceae were small, non-spinous with polyporate exine, whereas, the pollen grains of taxa belonging to other three families were echinate. The maximum numbers of pores have been recorded in convolvulaceous pollens. Likewise, pollen grains of nyctagenaceous taxa can be distinguished from the pollens of other families on the basis of the size of pollen and spines. The pollens of the members of family Malvaceae exhibit different patterns of pore arrangements on the exine. Keywords: Morpho- taxonomical studies, polyporate pollen grains. *Corresponding Author, email: sunchat1@rediffmail.com Introduction The term palynology was coined by Hyde and William (1945) and it deals with the studies of morphological characters of pollen grains and spores. Wodehouse (1935) has documented the fundamental characters of the angiosperm pollen morphology. Erdtman (1952) demonstrated the importance and implication of pollen morphology in angiosperm taxonomy. Pollen grains exhibit distinct exine architectural characteristics which are useful for comparative morphological studies. Studies on morphology of pollen grains of families like Amaranthaceae (Radulesca 1974; Livingstone et al. 1974; Vishnu Mittre 1963, Nair & Rastogi 1966 and Perveen & Qaiser, 2002), Convolvulaceae (Sengupta 1966; Nayar 1990; Arora & Modi 2008 and Rajurkar et al 2011), Malvaceae (Saad 1960; Christensen 1986; Naggar 2003 and Bibi et al. 2008) and Nyctaginaceae (Perveen and Qaiser,2001; Struwig et al., 2013 and Pramanick et al., 2015) have received little attention. Present study deals with the diversity of morphological characters of all polyporate pollen grains found in some taxa belonging to four unrelated families ,viz., Amranthaceae, Convolvulaceae, Malvaceae and Nyctaginaceae. Present investigation was undertaken to observe the variation in the shape, size and the exine ornamentation of pollen grains of the members of four distinct families growing at Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh state. Materials and methods The pollen samples were collected from three various sites namely, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidhyalaya campus, NH 130 Tifra, Sakri, Pendari, Khutaghat dam and Railway colony of Bilaspur district which is located between 22.09ºN and 82.15ºE with the temperature ranging from 15°C to 48°C during various months of the year. Fresh un-dehisced anthers of various plants belonging to the families were collected and fixed in 70% ethanol during January to October 2015. The anthers were crushed to release pollen grains which were acetolysed by the procedure of Erdtman (1952). Presently used acetolysis mixture consisted of acetyl chloride instead of acetic anhydride. Pollen grains were