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Microspore morphology of Selaginellaceae in China and its systematic significance

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Abstract

In this paper, we report the microspore morphology of 18 species in genus Selaginella P.Beauv. of family Selaginellaceae Willk. from China observed using scanning electron microscopy. Among these species, the morphological characteristics of 17 species have not been reported previously. The results show that the surface ornamentation of microspores of Selaginellaceae can be differentiated into nine major types including granulate, tuberculate, verrucate, verrucate-rugulate, spinate, baculate, reticulate, lamellate and cerebroid. These characteristics as taxonomic basis for subgenus classification support the view of Hieronymus (Die naturlichen pflanzenfamilien. Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig, 1901) that genus Selaginella should be classified as two sub-genera Homoeophyllum and Heterophyllum.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 39800011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, China

    Dan Yan, Lijuan Wang, Yuanyuan Song, Liu Wang, Tiantian Du & Jiaxi Liu

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  1. Dan Yan
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  2. Lijuan Wang
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  3. Yuanyuan Song
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  4. Liu Wang
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  5. Tiantian Du
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  6. Jiaxi Liu
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Correspondence to Jiaxi Liu.

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Handling editor: Louis P. Ronse De Craene.

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Yan, D., Wang, L., Song, Y. et al. Microspore morphology of Selaginellaceae in China and its systematic significance. Plant Syst Evol 302, 561–574 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-016-1284-8

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