Pollen Morphology of the New Zealand Species of Araliaceae

Abstract

The pollen morphology of twenty one of the twenty two New Zealand members of the family is described. Most genera were found to be reasonably distinct in their pollen grains, but there appeared to be little difference in the grains of Stilbocarpa and the two species of Kirkophytum. Pollen of species within a, genus were found in most cases to be distinguishable only with difficulty, if at all. The New Zealand Pseudopanax are divided into three groupings on pollen features. These divisions appeared to coincide with some of the suggested groupings made by workers using classical taxonomic methods. Some variation was found in pollen morphology within the varieties of Pseudopanax colensoi as defined by P. Wardle (1968a), and these are discussed and illustrated. Possible evolutionary features are discussed, together with a consideration of the prospects of the identification of genera and species from pollen in Quaternary sediments.