TAXONOMIC STUDY ON SALVIA SPECIES GROWING IN IRAQ USING POLLEN GRAINS MORPHOLOGY

The present study carried out to classify Salvia species growing in Iraq using pollen grains morphology. Plants of the seven test species collected from Anbar some of and some of Kurdistan Region between May and June 2021. All species were wild type with the exception of S. officinalis, which is cultivated in AR-Ramadi district. Light microscope (LM) and scanning electron Microscope (SEM) examinations revealed significant variations among pollen grains of the test species; the pollen grains of the test species found to be different in size ranged between medium and small; the shapes of pollen grains varied from suboblate to prolate; pollen grains of all test species was hexacolpate. The surface ornamentation was important in distinguishing some species, as the studied species were divided into two groups according to type of ornamentation, which was either reticulate or bireticulate. The bireticulate was the most common type of surface ornament in mesocolpium, while reticulate was the most common type of surface ornament in apocolpium. The present results provided useful pollen grains properties for species identification.