ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Palynological studies of some species of the genus Cuscuta with emphasis on taxonomy
1
Institute of Botany after A. Takhtajan, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Acharyan 1,
0063, Yerevan, Armenia
Online publication date: 2024-06-28
Publication date: 2024-06-28
Acta Palaeobotanica 2024; 64(1): 60-74
HIGHLIGHTS
- The results of palyno-morphological investigations of 38 species and 1 variation of the genus Cuscuta L. were presented.
- Analysis of pollen characteristics revealed that the length and number of colpi, as well as the exine ornamentation, can be regarded as a diagnostic.
- Using SEM, 3 main types of exine ornamentation were also identified: perforate, foveolate and reticulate (the last one often in combination with echinae).
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
The main objective of this research was to conduct a comparative pollen morphological analysis of
some representatives of the genus Cuscuta in relation to taxonomy. Investigations of 38 species and 1 variation
revealed that not only the number, but the colpi length, as well as the exine ornamentation (at the SEM level), can
be regarded as a diagnostic feature. For all the taxa studied, the common zonocolpate type of pollen was observed,
represented by three variations: I) colpi long; II) colpi of medium length; III) colpi short. In combination with colpi
length, variations in the number of colpi were also identified, such as: I) 3(4)-zonocolpate pollen grains with long
colpi (in most of the species studied from subgenera Grammica and Cuscuta, as well as in C. monogyna from the
subgenus Monogynella); II) 4(3)-zonocolpate pollen grains, with long colpi (C. cristata from subgenus Grammica);
III) 3-zonocolpate pollen grains both with long colpi and colpi of medium length (C. abyssinica from subgenus Cuscuta
and C. africana, C. angulata from subgenus Pachystigma); IV) 3-zonocolpate pollen grains with colpi of medium
length were noted for species from all four subgenera (C. cassytoides, C. lupuliformis from subgenus Monogynella,
C. kotschyana from subgenus Cuscuta, C. nitida from subgenus Pachystigma and C. jalapensis, C. rostrata, C. suaveolens from subgenus Grammica); V) 3–4- or 4-zonocolpate, with short colpi (C. lehmanniana and C. gigantea from subgenus Monogynella respectively); VI) 5–6-zonocolpate, with short colpi (C. reflexa from subgenus Monogynella).
Using SEM, three main types of exine ornamentation were also identified: perforate, foveolate and reticulate.
The last type in the vast majority of the cases was presented in combination with echinae (rarely with spines
or granules).
The data revealed that the presence of the significant similarity of palyno-morphological characteristics in
representatives of the subgenera Cuscuta, Pachystigma and Grammica, with the exception of the species Lepidanche
adpressa (syn. C. compacta), makes it difficult to create an identification key at the level of individual
subgenera. Pollen features can be most clearly used only to distinguish the subgenus Monoginella, reflecting its
certain isolation within the entire Cuscuta genus.
The presence of a highly specialized reticulate exine ornamentation in Lepidanche adpressa (syn. C. compacta),
not identified for the pollen of any of the studied taxa of the subgenus Grammica, indicates a significant
proximity of this species to the subgenus Monogynella. For the species C. reflexa, the obtained palyno-morphological
data are consistent with the previous opinion about the separation of this species, as well as its more
advanced position within the genus Cuscuta.
FUNDING
No.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
REFERENCES (75)
1.
Amini, E., Nasrollahi, F., Sattarian, A., Kor, S., Boozarpour, S., 2018. Molecular and micro-morphological evidences of the genus Cuscuta in Iran. Rostaniha 19(2), 113–129.
2.
Andres, I.M., Heras, J.G., 1986. Estudios polinicos de la flora Valenciana: Convolvulaceae. Lazaroa 9, 83–95.
3.
Aryavand, A., 1987. The chromosome numbers of some Cuscuta L. (Cuscutaceae) species from Isfahan, Iran. Irani-an Journal of Botany 3(2), 177–182.
4.
Austin, D.F., 1980. Studies of the Florida Convolvulaceae III. Cuscuta. Florida Scientist 43, 294–302.
5.
Austin, D.F., 1986. Cuscutaceae. In: Brooks, R.E., Schofield, E.K., McGregor, R.L., Barkley, T.M. (eds), Flora of the Great Plains. Great Plains Flora Association. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.
6.
Avetisyan, E.M., 1950. Uproshchenny atsetolizny metod obrabotki pil’tsi. Botanicheskii Zhurnal 35(4), 385−387 (in Russian).
7.
Avetisyan, E.M., Mekhakyan, A.K., 1980. Opisanie pil’tsi semeystva Cuscutacae. In: Takhtajan, A.L. (ed.), Flora Armenii, 7. Akademiya Nauk ArmSSR, Yerevan (in Russian).
8.
Baillon, H., 1891. Convolvulacées. Histoire des plante, Paris, France: Librairie Hachett and Cie.
9.
Bentham, G., Hooker, J.D., (1873)1876. Convolvulaceae. Genera Plantarum. London 2 (2), 864–869.
10.
Chiguryaeva, A.A., 1972. K morfologii pil’tsi Parnolistnikovikh, Kazuarinovikh, Vyunkovikh. In: Flora i rastitel’noct’ Yugo-vostoka, 2. Saratov (in Russian).
11.
Choisy, J.D., 1845. Convolvulaceae. In: De Candolle, A.P. (ed.), Phrodromus Systematic Regni Vegetables. Annals And Magazine of Natural History, Paris, pp. 323–465.
12.
Costea, M., Nesom, G.L., Stefanvović, S., 2006a. Taxonomy of Cuscuta pentagona complex (Convolvulaceae) in North America. SIDA Contribution to Botany 22, 151–175.
13.
Costea, M., Nesom, G.L., Stefanović, S., 2006b. Taxonomy of Cuscuta salina-californica complex (Convolvulaceae) in North America. SIDA Contribution to Botany 22, 176–195.
14.
Costea, M., Nesom, G.L., Stefanvović, S., 2006c. Taxonomy of Cuscuta gronovii and Cuscuta umbrosa (Convolvu-laceae). SIDA Contribution to Botany 22, 197–207.
15.
Costea, M., Nesom, G.L., Stefanvović, S., 2006d. Taxonomy of Cuscuta indecora complex (Convolvulaceae) in North America. SIDA Contribution to Botany 22, 209–225.
16.
Costea, M., Aiston, F., Stefanvović, S., 2008. Species delimitation, phylogenetic relationships, and two new species in the Cuscuta gracillima complex (Convolvulaceae). Botany 86, 670–681. https://doi.org/10.1139/B08-03....
17.
Costea, M., García, M.A., Stefanvović, S., 2015. A phylogenetically based infrageneric classification of the parasitic plant genus Cuscuta (Dodders, Convolvulaceae). Systematic Botany 40(1), 269–285. https://doi.org/10.1600/036364....
18.
Cronk, Q.C.B., Clarke, G.S.C., 1981. The Northwest European pollen flora, 28. Convolvulaceae. Review of Palaeo-botany and Palynology 33(1), 117–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/0034-6....
19.
Cronquist, A., 1988. The evolution and classification of flowering plants. The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY, USA.
20.
Dahlgren, R.M.T., 1980. A revised system of classification of the angiosperms. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 80(2), 91–124. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095....
21.
Das, S., Banerji, M., 1966. Pollen morphology of a new speies of Cuscuta. Current Science (India) 3, 105–106.
22.
Demir, I., Kaya, I., Benli, M., Altınoglu, M.K., 2017. Investigation of palinological features of taxa belonging to the genus Cuscuta distributed in Turkey. International Journal of Agriculture and Biology 19, 746–750. https://doi.org/10.17957/IJAB/....
23.
Dumortier, B.C., 1829. Analyse des families des plantes avec l’indication des principaux genres quis’y rattachent. Tournay.
25.
Engelmann, G., 1859. Systematic arrangement of the species of the genus Cuscuta with critical remarks on old species and description of new ones. Transactions of the Acadademy of Science of St. Louis 1, 453–523.
26.
Erdtman, G., 1952. Pollen morphology and plant taxonomy. Angiosperms. Almqvist et Wiksell, Stockholm.
27.
García, M.A., Martin, M.P., 2007. Phylogeny of Cuscuta subgenus Cuscuta (Convolvulaceae) based on nrDNA ITS and chloroplast trnL intron sequences. Systematic Botany 32(3), 899–916.
28.
García, M.A., Costea, M., Kuzmina, M., Stefanović, S., 2014. Phylogeny, character evolution, and biogeography of Cuscuta (dodders; Convolvulaceae) inferred from coding plastid and nuclear sequences. American Journal of Botany 101(4), 670–690. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.13....
29.
Halbritter, H., Ulrich, S., Grímsson, F., Weber, M., Zetter, R., Hesse, M., Buchner, R., Svojtka, M., Frosch-Radivo, A., 2018. Illustrated Pollen Terminology (Second edition). Springer Open. Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-....
30.
Hallier, H., 1893. Versuch einer natürlichen Gleiderung der Convolvulaceen auf morphologischer und anatomischer Grundlage. Botanische Jahrbücher fur Systematik 16, 453–591.
31.
Hamed, K.A., 2005. Pollen and seed characters of certain Cuscuta species growing in Egypt with a reference to a taxonomic treatment of the genus. International Journal of Agriculture & Biology 7(3), 325–332.
32.
Hayrapetyan, A., 2010. Pollen morphology of the genus Cuscuta L. Proceedings of the YSU, Chemistry and Biology 1, 42–49 (in Russian).
33.
Heusser, C.I., 1971. Pollen and spores of Chile. Modern types of the Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae and Angiosper-mae. Tucson, Arizona.
34.
Hu, S.-Y., Yuan, Z.-F., 2002. Distribution of the cytoplasmic DNA in male cells of the Convolvulaceae and its sys-tematic significance. Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica (Journal of Systematics and Evolution) 40(6), 511–516.
35.
Hutchinson, J., 1926. The families of flowering plants. I. Dicotyledons. Arranged according to a new system based on their probable phylogeny, 1 ed. London: MacMillan.
36.
Hutchison, J.M., Ashton, F.M., 1979. Effect of desiccation and scarification on the permeability and structure of the seed coat of Cuscuta campestris. American Journal of Botany 66(1), 40–46.
37.
Index herbariorum: A global directory of public herbaria and associated staff. New York Botanical Garden’s Virtual Herbarium. https://sweetgum.nybg.org/scie...; accessed 27 september 2023.
38.
Jones, A., 1968. Chromosome numbers in Ipomoea and related genera. The Journal of Heredity 59, 99–102.
39.
Kuprianova, L.A., Alyoshina, L.A., 1972. Pyl’tsa i spory rasteni flori Yevropeyskoy chasti SSSR (Pollen and spores of plants of the flora of the European part of USSR), I. Akademiya Nauk SSSR, BIN, Leningrad (in Russian).
40.
Laguardia, A.M., 1961. Morfologia del grano de pollen de algunas Convolvulaceaes Uruguayas. Boletin de la Socie-dad Argentina de Botanica 9, 187–197.
41.
Liao, G.I., Chen, M.Y., Huoh, C.S., 2005. Pollen morphology of Cuscuta (Convolvulaceae) in Taiwan. Botanical Bul-letin of Academia Sinica 46, 75–81.
42.
Martin, H.A., 2001. The family Convolvulaceae in the Tertiary of Australia: evidence from pollen. Australian Jour-nal of Botany 49, 221–234.
43.
Melchior, H., 1964. Convolvulaceae. In: Engler A. (ed.). Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien 2. 12th ed. Berlin.
44.
Nair, P.K.K., Rehman, K., 1963. Pollen grains of Indian plants – VI. Bulletin, National Botanic Gardens, Lucknow 83, 1–17.
45.
Neyland, R., 2001. A phylogeny inferred from large ribosomal subunit (26S) rDNA sequences suggests that Cuscuta is a derived member of Convolvulaceae. Brittonia 53, 108–115.
46.
Noshad, Q., Ajaib, M., Kiran, A., 2020. Comparative investigation of palynological characters of Cuscuta reflexa and few memebers of Convolvulaceae. The Journal of Animal & Plant Sciences 30(5), 1215–1223. https://doi.org/10.36899/JAPS.....
47.
Pedraza, R.A., 1985. Estudio palinologico de la familia Convolvulaceae de Mexico II. Biotica 10(2), 175–187.
48.
Perveen, A., Qaiser, M., 2004. Pollen flora of Pakistan – XLI. Cuscutaceae. Pakistan Journal of Botany 36(3), 475–480.
49.
Peter, A., 1891. Convolvulaceae. In: Engler, A., Prantl, K. (eds), Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien. Bd. 3a. Leipzig: Engelmann, pp. 1–40.
50.
Peter, A., 1897. Convolvulaceae. In: Engler, A., Prantl, K. (eds), Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien (Appendix) 3.
51.
Polo, J.M., Diez, M.J., 1987. Cuscutaceae. In: Valdes, B., Diez, M.J., Fernandez, I. (eds), Atlas polinico de Andalucia Occidental. Universidad de Sevilla.
52.
Punt, W., Hoen, P.P., Blackmore, S., Nilsson, S., Le Thomas, A., 2007. Glossary of pollen and spore terminology. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 143, 1−81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revp....
53.
Revill, M.J.V., Stanley, S., Hibberd, J.M., 2005. Plastid genome structure and loss of photosynthetic ability in the parasitic genus Cuscuta. Journal of Experimental Botany 56, 2477–2486. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/er....
55.
Roberty, G., 1964. Les genres de Convolvulacées (esquisse). Boissiera 10, 129–156.
56.
Sengupta, S., 1972. On the pollen morphology of Convolvulaceae with special reference to taxonomy. Review of Pal-aeobotany and Palynology 13, 157–212.
57.
Severova, E.E., 1995. Palinomorphological features of Russian dodders (Cuscuta). Byulleten’ Moskovskogo ob-shchestva ispitateley prirodi. Otdeleniye Biologii 100(1), 65–73 (in Russian).
58.
Shimakura, M., 1973. Palynomorphs of Japanese plants. Special Publication of Osaka Museum of Natural History 5, 1–60.
59.
Smolyaninova, L.A., Golubkova, V.F., 1950. K metodike issledovaniya pil’tsi. Dokladi Akademii Nauk SSSR 75(1), 125−126 (in Russian).
60.
Stefanović, S., Krueger, L., Olmstead, R.G., 2002. Monophyly of the Convolvulaceae and circumscription of their major lineages based on DNA sequences of multiple chloroplast loci. American Journal of Botany 89, 1510–1522. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.89....
61.
Stefanović, S., Olmstead, R.G., 2004. Testing the phylogenetic position of a parasitic plant (Cuscuta, Convolvu-laceae, Asteridae): Bayesian inference and the parametric bootstrap on data drawn from three genomes. Sys-tematic Biology 53(3), 384–399. https://doi.org/10.1080/106351....
62.
Stefanović, S., Kuzmina, M., Costea, M., 2007. Delimitation of major lineages within Cuscuta subgenus Grammica (Convolvulaceae) using plastid and nuclear DNA sequences. American Journal of Botany 94(4), 568–589. https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.94....
63.
Takhtajan, A., 1987. Sistema Magnoliofitov (Systema Magnoliophytorum). Nauka, Leningrad (in Russian).
65.
Takhtajan, A., 2009. Flowering Plants (Second edition). Springer Science+Business Media B.V. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-....
66.
Takhtajan, A.L., 1966. Sistema i filogeniya tsvekovikh rasteni (Systema et Phylogenia Magnoliophytorum). Nauka, Moskva, Leningrad (in Russian).
67.
Tellería, M.C., Daners, G., 2003. Pollen types in southern New World Convolvulaceae and their taxonomic signifi-cance. Plant Systematics and Evolution 243, 99–118. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606....
68.
Terekhin, E.S., Kotov, V.A., 1988. Embryology of Cuscuta japonica. Botanicheskii Zhurnal 73(2), 222–230 (in Rus-sian).
70.
Tiagi, B., 1951. A contribution to the morphology and embryology of Cuscuta hyalina Roth. and C. planiflora Tenore. Phytomorphology 1, 2–21.
71.
Van Campo, M., 1976. Patterns of pollen morphological variation within taxa. In: Ferguson, I.K., Muller, J. (eds), The evolutionary significance of the exine. Academic Press, London, 125–137.
72.
Welsh, M., Stefanović, S., Costea, M., 2010. Pollen evolution and its taxonomic significance in Cuscuta (dodders, Convolvulaceae). Plant Systematics and Evolution 285, 83–101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606....
73.
Yuncker, T.G., 1932. The genus Cuscuta. Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club 18(2), 113–331.
74.
Zare, G., Dönmez, A.A., 2020. Cuscuta campestris Yunck. morphology, anatomy and traditional use in Turkey. Hacettepe University Journal of the Faculty of Pharmacy 40(1), 1–10.
75.
Zhang, Z., Cheng, G., Zhongwu, S., Chenghu, L., 1991. Scanning electron microscope observation on pollen morphol-ogy of Cuscuta in China. Guihaia 11(4), 308–311.
| eISSN: | 2082-0259 |
| ISSN: | 0001-6594 |
We process personal data collected when visiting the website. The function of obtaining information about users and their behavior is carried out by voluntarily entered information in forms and saving cookies in end devices. Data, including cookies, are used to provide services, improve the user experience and to analyze the traffic in accordance with the Privacy policy. Data are also collected and processed by Google Analytics tool (more).
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
