Additions to the Pantepui pollen flora (Venezuelan Guayana): the Maguire Collection

V Rull,A Lara,C López-Martínez,S Nogué,L Campbell

doi:10.3989/collectbot.2010.v29.004

V Rull, A Lara + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3989/collectbot.2010.v29.004

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Abstract

This work is a pollen-morphological study of various plant species from Pantepui (Venezuelan Guayana), a region with high biodiversity and endemism, where global warming is expected to have a high impact. The study consists of a series of morphological descriptions of selected taxa from the Maguire pollen reference slide collection of The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). The collection was initiated under the supervision of Senior Curator Bassett Maguire to advance systematic, palynological, and medical studies; today it has become also useful for other disciplines such as paleoecology, paleoclimatology or forensic studies. The aim of this pollen-morphological study is to enhance the database of pollen descriptions and illustrations for identification purposes, to be used in the ongoing paleoecological reconstructions and, eventually, in other types of studies using pollen, particularly from the Guayanan tepui summits.

Highlights

This paper is part of a series devoted to the pollenmorphological study of vascular plant species from the Venezuelan Guayana (Fig. 1), from the characteristic sandstone tabular mountains, initiated by Salgado-Labouriau & Villar (1992) and continued by Rull (2003)
The tepuian flora is expected to be seriously affected by relatively rapid biodiversity loss under ongoing global warming
Besides the papers mentioned above, which are monographic for the pollen of the Guayana region, the available literature dealing with this subject is scarce and organized taxonomically

Summary

Introduction

This paper is part of a series devoted to the pollenmorphological study of vascular plant species from the Venezuelan Guayana (Fig. 1), from the characteristic sandstone tabular mountains (tepuis), initiated by Salgado-Labouriau & Villar (1992) and continued by Rull (2003). Glossarion rhodanthum Maguire & Wurdack (Plate 1: 6-9) Ectocolpi long, rounded ends, elliptic (74.8 x 3.7 mm), slightly marginate. Comments: Bonnetia roraimae is described in Salgado-Labouriau & Villar (1992) and Rull (2003). Ectocolpi long (27.5 mm), rounded ends, marginate, ora difficult to see.

Results

Conclusion