Palynology of the genus Pulicaria Gaertn. (Asteraceae, Inuleae, Inulinae) in the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Pulicaria is the third largest genus of the tribe Inuleae. It comprises ca. 80 species of shrubs, shrublets and herbs with a European, North African and Asian distribution. All of the 5 European species are represented in the Iberian Peninsula. The genus has taxonomic problems, as recent cladistic analysis showed that, like the other two great genera of Inuleae (Inula and Blumea), Pulicaria is a paraphyletic taxon. In fact, the species investigated so far were placed in two distinct clades. Moreover, the species status of Pulicaria microcephala, a Portuguese endemism of Berlengas Islands, is still controversial. As already demonstrated by several authors, the palynological data are of great importance to understand the evolution, taxonomy and ecology of the Asteraceae. However, in spite of a few relevant contributions, the palynology of Pulicaria is still insufficiently known. In the present work we investigated the palynology of the Iberian species of Pulicaria using light (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The exine structure of Pulicaria paludosa was also investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM).