Sains Malaysiana 44(1)(2015): 7–15

Pollen and Seed Morphology of Rhinacanthus Nees and Hypoestes Sol.

ex R. Br. (Acanthaceae) of Yemen

(Morfologi Debunga dan Biji Rhinacanthus Nees dan Hypoestes Sol.

ex R. Br. (Acanthaceae) dari Yemen)

ANISA S. AL-HAKIMI^1,2*, HAJA MAIDEEN¹ & A. LATIFF¹

¹School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

²Taiz University, Biology Department, Faculty of Science, Taiz, Yemen

Received: 12 July 2013/Accepted: 23 May 2014

ABSTRACT

Pollens and seeds of Hypoestes and Rhinacanthus collected from different field localities in Taiz and Soqotra Island, Yemen were investigated by using light and scanning electron microscopes. Pollen grains of Hypoestes were prolate in equatorial view, lobate trigonal to lobate circular in polar view whereas those of Rhinacanthus were subspheroidal and rounded trigonal in polar view. The aperture was tricolporate and exine ornamentation was coarsely reticulate for all species in the two genera. Scanning electron microscopy and morphological observations showed that mature dry seeds of Hypoestes and Rhinacanthus have various sizes and shapes, the surface ornamentations observed were reticulate to cristate, an addition to the tuberculum and papillae. The three Hypoestes species differ in the seed structure which are useful for identification and their high structural diversity provides an important taxonomic value for species differentiation.

Keywords: Acanthaceae; Hypoestes species; pollen morphology; Rhinacanthus scoparius; seed morphology

ABSTRAK

Debunga dan biji Hypoestes dan Rhinacanthus yang diperoleh dari lokaliti lapangan berbeza di Taiz dan Pulau Soqotra, Yemen telah dikaji menggunakan mikroskop cahaya dan mikroskop imbasan elektron. Debunga Hypoestes adalah prolat pada pandangan khatulistiwa, lobat trigon kepada lobat membulat pada pandangan kutub manakala debunga Rhinacanthus adalah subsferoid dan trigon membulat pada pandangan kutub. Apertur adalah trikolporat dan hiasan eksin adalah retikulat kasar untuk semua spesies kedua-dua genus tersebut. Mikroskop imbasan elektron dan pemerhatian morfologi telah menunjukkan biji matang kering Hypoestes dan Rhinacanthus mempunyai berbagai saiz dan bentuk, hiasan permukaan adalah retikulat hingga kristat, disamping tuberkulum dan papila. Ketiga-tiga spesies Hypoestes berbeza pada struktur biji yang berguna bagi pengecaman dan kepelbagaian struktur yang tinggi memberikan nilai taksonomi yang penting untuk membezakan spesies.

Kata kunci: Acanthaceae; morfologi debunga; morfologi kulit biji; Rhinacanthus scoparius; spesies Hypoestes

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*Corresponding author; email: anna_smh3@yahoo.com