Abstract

The pollen of Tacca leontopetaloides collected from four different locations across Nigeria was prepared and studied under the light microscope. The exine pattern was observed to be fairly striate in all samples from the four different locations, while all the grains were monosulcate. Based on the polar axis size, the pollen sample from Akoko (sample A) was small sized, while the rest are medium sized. The pollen shape for pollen grains from Akoko (sample A) was oblate, pollen grains from Eruwa (sample B) were peroblate, and pollens from Bazza (sample C) were oblate spheroidal, while pollens from Ile-Ife (sample D) were subspheroidal. The exine thickness (2 µm) was observed to be virtually the same in all the four samples, both at polar and equatorial views, while the polar axis, however, varies among the four samples, ranging from 22 µm in sample B (Eruwa) to 44 µm in sample C (Bazza). However, the equatorial diameter of the four samples is in the range of 41.4 µm in sample D (Ile-Ife) and 46.4 µm in sample C (Bazza). P/E% varies widely from 48.8% in sample B (Eruwa) to 94.8% in sample C (Bazza), while sample A (Akoko) was 70.9% and sample D (Ile-Ife) was 77.3%. The results show that the pollen grains collected from the four different locations did not differ significantly from one another, but they share striking similarities with otherTacca species and even with members of other closely related families.

Key words: Tacca leontopetaloides, pollen morphology, Taccaceae, Nigeria.