Pollen morphology of 10 species of Ipomoea by scanning electron microscope (SEM).

Pollen morphology of 10 Ipomoea species used as breeding materials was examined under scanning electron microscope (SEM),in order to increase the new pollen morphology information and test the reported results.The experimental results show that pollen grains in this genera are uniformly spheroidal in shape and larger in size;most of the pollen apertures are pantoporate,with few inaperturate;3 types of exine sculptures are recognized:echinate,echinate-reticulate and reticulate.Generally,the 10 species plant can be distinguied according to pollen morphology in diameter size,spine length,aperture characters and ornamentation,by detailed SEM observation results.Meanwhile,the pollen morphology of I.wrightii was found to be largely different with the previous report.