Pollen morphology of Chinese Sileneae and its systematic significance

Pollen morphology of 58 species and two subspecies of the genera Agrostemma, Cucubalus, Lychnis and Silene of Chinese Sileneae was studied using scanning electron microscopy. Among them, 50 species and one subspecies were reported for the first time. The results demonstrate that the number of pores and pollen surface ornamentation have important systematic significance. The surface ornamentation can be divided into four types, namely microechinate-perforate, microechinate-punctate, microechinate-reticulate and microechinate-punctate-perforate. The palynological characteristics support that (i) Cucubalus and Lychnis should be classified into Silene; (ii) Agrostemma and Silene are sister groups; and (iii) the infrageneric classification of Silene still needs further study.