Usefulness of palynomorphological characteristics for the identification of species Cyanus Mill. (Asteraceae) in Turkey: A taxonomic approach

Palynological characters of 20 taxa belonging to the Turkish subgenus Cyanus were studied in details using light and scanning electron microscopy. Pollen grains of the subgenus Cyanus were tricolporate or syncolporate, subprolate or prolate-spheroidal, 26.15 to 53 µm in polar size, 22.84 to 46.86 µm in equatorial size, isopolar, and radially symmetrical. The only type of pollen grain ornamentation observed was scabrate-perforate. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis were performed to investigate the relationships of the studied Cyanus taxa. As a result of the phenetic analyses, the polar axis, equatorial axis, colpus length, and apocolpium were found to be significant palynomorphological characteristics for taxonomic use.