Spore Morphology of Pteridophytes from China XII.Lycopodiaceae

The morphology of spores of 6 genera,9 species and 1 form of Lycopodiaceae from China was examined using scanning electron microscope(SEM).The results show that the spores are radially symmetrical and tetrahedron,with a trilete,each of which has a length of about 1/2-3/4 or almost equal to radius of the spores.And some species of Lycopodiaceae have lip-shaped trilete.The spores are often rounded triangular or suborbicular in polar view,and fan-shaped or nearly elliptic in equatorial view.The length of polar axis is about 23-50 μm.The length of equatorial axis is about 24-54 μm.The spores exospore forms the ornamentation outline,including reticulate,baculate,lophate,ornate,tuberculate and granulate.The perispore of spore,usually a thin layer,deposits on the outside surface of the exospore.From spore morphology,the ornamentation types of Lycopodium and Diphasiastrum are interlaced.It is concluded that the boundary between the two genera is not obvious based on the features of spore morphology.But,the other four genera,Lycopodiella,Pseudolycopodiella,Palhinhaea and Lycopodiastrum have their own clear characters in spore morphology.