Aperture Evolution in the Pollen of Primitive Angiosperms

Abstract

Diversity of pollen apertures in 35 families of the ranalean complex is compared through a series of representative scanning electronmicrographs, and the evolution of pollen aperture types in primitive angiosperms is outlined. A classification of pollen apertures found in the ranalean complex is presented, and ten basic aperture types are recognized: anasulcate, anatrichotomosulcate, zonasulculate, anaulcerate, catasulcate-cataulcerate, inaperturate, disulculate-diulculate, forate, colpate, and porate. Evidence is adduced for the primitive (ancestral) status of anasulcate pollen, and transitional stages in the evolution of other pollen aperture types in the ranalean complex are examined. From an early stock of ranalean angiosperms with anasulcate pollen, there appears to have been development of a number of interesting but evolutionally dead-end lines, represented among others by zonasulculate, anaulcerate, and catasulcate-cataulcerate pollen types. The most important evolutionary trend in early angiosperm pollen seems to have been the development of inaperturate pollen grains in many families of primitive angiosperms, from which there was a second major radiation of aperture types, including evolution of disulculate and forate pollen. Comparative study of pollen apertures observed in living primitive angiosperms suggests a de novo origin of the uniquely angiospermous (dicotyledonous) colpate pollen type from such inaperturate pollen.