Micromorphological assessment of pollen and foliar epidermal traits in Solanaceae using SEM characterization.

This paper gives a detailed micromorphological evaluation of pollen and foliar epidermal characteristics of twenty-two Solanaceae species growing at different locations in Islamabad and Rawalpindi in Pakistan. The light microscopy (LM) and the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to study the pollen morphology of twenty-one species and the foliar epidermal anatomy of all twenty-two species. The palynological evidence showed a strong interspecific pollen shape, size, type of aperture and exine sculpturing, prolate-spherical and tricolpate were primarily found. In line with this, foliar epidermal studies also exhibited unique changes in epidermal cell morphology, anticlinal wall structure, stomatal formations, and trichome features, and were, thus diagnostic at generic and also species level. The combination of palynological and foliar epidermal datasets gave supplementary evidence, which supports the delimitation of species and explains the taxonomic relationship within the family. As a result, the micromorphological characteristics can be useful to solve the problems of identification within morphologically related taxa as well as to create a more stable and systematic structure of Solanaceae classification in Pakistan.