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Turkish Journal of Botany

Abstract

The main focus of this research is the palynological investigation of Rhaponticoides Vaill. species naturally occurring in Türkiye. Light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were employed to examine the pollen morphology of nine Rhaponticoides species in detail. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was also conducted to identify closely related species and distinguish the investigated taxa based on palynological traits. The study found that the pollen grains were tricolporate, isopolar, monad, and radially symmetric, with an oblate-spheroidal shape as indicated by the polar/equatorial (P/E) ratio. The pollen measurements derived from the P/E ratio ranged between 0.85 and 1, values associated with the Serratula type of the basal clade. SEM analysis revealed that the exine ornamentation was echinate-perforate. Key palynological criteria for discriminating Rhaponticoides species included the polar and equatorial axes, exine thickness, colpus length and width, and the lengths of spines and costae. This study advances our understanding of the relationships among Rhaponticoides taxa and offers valuable insights for future taxonomic research.

Author ORCID Identifier

FOROOGH TAVAKOLI: 0000-0003-1680-8111

GÜRKAN SEMİZ: 0000-0003-0276-8542

BATIKAN GÜNAL: 0000-0002-6126-6510

MERYEM BOZKURT: 0000-0003-0338-0849

TUNA UYSAL: 0000-0001-9968-5633

DOI

10.55730/1300-008X.2873

Keywords

Asteraceae, hierarchical cluster analysis, HCA, Primer 7, pollen morphology, Rhaponticoides, taxonomy

First Page

420

Last Page

431

Publisher

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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