Mariella Piazza

• Biodiversity Journal, 10 (4): 451-456 - MONOGRAPH

  Eugenia Oliveri, Davide Vancheri, Andrea Tetamo, Alessia Galanti, Pierluigi Ferina, Mariella Piazza & Stefano Reale
  Creation of a pollen database for Mediterranean flowering plants
  https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2019.10.4.451.456

  ABSTRACT
  Palynology is the science that studies pollen grains (size, morphology, structure, function, ornamentation, physical and chemical properties), the carriers that transport the male gametes to the pistil (more precisely to the stigma) allowing the fertilization of the eggs. In seed plants pollens represent an extra generation (haploid generation), the widely reduced male gametophyte. During the pollen release phase, the pollen grains separate completely from the plant (diploid generation, or sporophyte) in an attempt to reach the female flower to allow the release of genetic material and, therefore, the fertilization of the egg. Pollens possess many varieties of shapes, sizes, designs, ornamentations, openings with variable shapes and numbers that can be observed by optical microscopy and that have a high systematic value. Each botanical species has pollens with unique characteristics that allow their identification. Palynology is widely used as an extremely important tool in various types of studies and investigations, such as paleobotany, forensic investigations, melissopalynology, studies on the biodiversity of precise geographical areas, identification of cases of introduction of non-native species and identification of hybridization between species. For these reasons the creation of a pollen database could be a particularly efficient and useful tool.

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