Pollen morphology of Nepenthes khasiana Hook. f. (Nepenthaceae), an endemic insectivorous plant from India

Abstract

The pollen morphology of Nepenthes khasiana (the pitcher plant) from India, was investigated using both light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. This was to investigate fine details that may contribute to the taxonomic characterisation of species, as well as to utilise the knowledge of its morphology in order to correlate it with Bornean Nepenthes species. The size of the tetrad is the defining feature. The pollen grain is non-aperturate, the sexine is spinuliferous and thicker than the nexine. The study indicates that the species is similar in shape, aperture and ornamentation, and can be discriminated by the size of the tetrad, the length of the spines and the exine thickness. The size of the tetrad (30.7 μm) is closer to two Bornean species such as N. rafflesiana and N. mirabilis (30.5 and 31.0 μm respectively). These observations will be helpful in morphotaxonomy for accurate identification. This will help in finding these taxa from modern and sub-surface soils in order to study the present status of pollen preservation and decipher the palaeovegetation and past climate of the region.

Keywords:

• Nepenthes khasiana
• pollen morphology
• Meghalaya
• northeast India

Acknowledgements

We thank Professor Sunil Bajpai, Director of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, for providing laboratory facilities and permission to publish the manuscript. We are also thankful to the forest officials of Meghalaya for their help during sample collection.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sadhan K. Basumatary

SADHAN K. BASUMATARY was awarded a BSc from the University of Gauhati in 1995, an MSc in botany from the University of Gauhati in 1998 and a PhD on Quaternary palynology from the University of Lucknow in 2011. He is currently a Scientist ‘C’ at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in Lucknow, working on palaeoclimatology using multiproxy data. He has 12 years research experience, and has published 58 papers in national and international journals.

Swati Tripathi

SWATI TRIPATHI is currently working as a Scientist ‘B’ at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany. She focuses on palaeoclimatology using Quaternary pollen as proxy. She was awarded a BSc in botany from Lucknow University in 2005. Later, she received three Gold Medals for obtaining the highest percentage of marks in the MSc (botany), at Lucknow University in 2007. She undertook PhD studies and received her doctorate in 2011 from the Department of Botany, Lucknow University. Swati worked as a Research Fellow and Birbal Sahni Research Associate before joining as a Scientist. She is also the recipient of the Dr. B.S. Venkatachala Memorial Medal, 2012, for outstanding research in palaeobotany. She has 20 research papers published in peer-reviewed journals.

Samir K. Bera

SAMIR K. BERA was awarded a BSc in botany from the University of Calcutta in 1976, an MSc in botany from the University of Burdwan in 1978 and a PhD from the University of Lucknow in 1989. He is currently a Scientist ‘F’ at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany in Lucknow, working on palaeoclimatology using Quaternary pollen as a proxy. Samir has 33 years research experience, and has published 75 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He has visited Antarctica twice, and has supervised several research students.

Subodh Kumar

SUBODH KUMAR was awarded an MSc in physics from Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya Haridwar in 1997 and an MPhil in instrumentation from the University of Roorkee (now IITR) in 1998. He also received a PhD from Lucknow University in 2013. He is currently working as a Technical Officer ‘B’ and is in charge of the scanning electron microscopy unit in the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow. Subodh Kumar has published three papers in peer-reviewed journals.