Abstract:

Pollen morphologies of 33 different wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox) cultivars in Henan were observed under SEM. Results showed: the wintersweet pollen grains was iso-polar, bilateral symmetry, and existed in the form of single grain, and most of grains were prolate; the pollen had 2-colporate. The exine sculptures were verrucous, vermicule, perforated and cave-shaped; the pollen morphology. The exine sculpture features, pollen shape and pollen size) could be used as the reference bases in the wintersweet cultivars classifications. The pollen morphology was not directly correlated with the external morphology. This study dose not support hypothesis classifying and identifying wintersweet cultivars by pollen morphology alone.

Key words: wintersweet(Chimonanthus praecox), pollen morphology, classification