Modern Phytomorphology 3: 45–50, 2013 © Te Author(s), 2013 Introduction Genus Diospyros belongs to an extensive family Ebenaceae consisting of 7 genera. Yonemori et al. (2000) listed over 400 species forming the genus Diospyros and several of these species are of economic importance. Te mild climatic region is suitable for growing and use in horticulture of three persimmon species – Diospyros kaki L.f., D. virginiana L. and D. lotus L. (Bellini & Giordani 2005). In Slovakia, persimmon species are cultivated in botanical gardens as well as by many small growers. Te present knowledge on growing of these originally exotic plants clearly show the possibility of successful cultivation in local climatic conditions, preferably in the southern part of Slovakia. Research work and most studies of these species were concentrated for several years in the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra in close cooperation with the National Botanic Garden of the Ukraine National Academy of Sciences in Kiev (Grygorieva et al. 2009). For practical reasons, concerning the use and distribution of mentioned plant species in Slovakia, it is quite important to learn the biological peculiarities connected with fowering as well as with interspecifc variability and reproduction capacity in local climatic conditions. It is known that the persimmon fowers are prevailingly unisexual, only exceptionally being bisexual. It means that the plant bears both, the male and female fowers. Sometimes the dioecism occurs. Many individuals have only female fowers and the fruits can arise without fertilization – by parthenocarpy and they are seedless. Flowering biology complexity is for these species symptomatic, and it brings questions concerning several topics like the pollen grains characteristics designated in palinology as sporoforms. Information on the genus Diospyros pollen grain traits occurs scarcely in a few papers (Erdtman 1966; Kodela 2006; Geeraerts et al. 2009). Te morphological characteristics of pollen grains are applied for taxonomic classifcation purposes, further for phylogenetic evaluation of plant species and detection of hybrid and polyploid forms (Erdtman 1966; 1986; Erdtman & Roger 2007). Ten aim of this work was determination of pollen grains general characteristics and basic morphological traits in selected species from the genus Diospyros including the variability of examined species. POLLEN CHArCTERISTICS IN SOME DIOSPYROS SPECIES Olga Grygorieva 1 *, Ján Brindza 2 , Radovan Ostrovský 2 , Svetlana Klymenko 1 , Olga Grabovetska 3 Abstract. Aim of the work was to study the general characteristics and essential morphological traits of pollen grains viz the size, shape of pollen grains and number, form and position of apertures in Diospyros kaki L.f., D. virginiana L., D. lotus L. species and interspecies hybrid of D. virginiana × D. kaki. Signifcant diferences were detected among the tested species and the interspecifc hybrid as well as between individual genotypes of D. lotus, especially in the equatorial axis. Key words: Diospyros kaki, Diospyros virginiana, Diospyros lotus, pollen grains; morphological traits, hybrids 1 M.M. Gryshko National Botanical Garden, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 1 Timiryazevska str., Kyiv, 01014, Ukraine; * ogrygorieva@mail.ru 2 Slovak University of Agriculture, Nitra, 2 Tr. A. Hlinku, Slovak Republic 3 Experimental feld «Novokakhovske» Nikita Botanical Garden – National Science centre NAS of Ukraine, Nova Kakhovka, Ukraine