The pollen of Solanum L. and its systematic significance

The morphology of 75 different pollen grains from 67 species of genus Solanum L., two species of genus Cyphomandra Sendt., and six species of genus Lycianthes (Dunal) Hassl. was studied using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Among them, the pollen of 66 species is described for the first time. Our results suggest that the sexine ornamention of Solanum, Cyphomandra and Lycianthes is extremely similar, but the apertures of genus Solanum and Cyphomandra are not syncolpate while those of genus Lycianthes are syncolpate. Overall, we argued that the Solanum species studied demonstrated sufficient pollinic heterogeneity in their shapes, aperture feature and sexine ornamentation to enable their palynological characterisation and support the point of view that the genus Cyphomandra should be merged into Solanum, but Lycianthes should be an independent genus from the aspect of palynology.