Pollen Morphology of Pepper Cultivars and their wild allies from Southern Western Ghats, Kerala, India

The pollen morphology of nine species and six cultivars of Piper nigrum var. nigrum were elucidated with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), supplemented by light microscopy (LM) and micrometry. The pollen grains of all the taxa are monosulcate, with considerable variations in exine ornamentation. Two distinct lines of exine ornamentation were observed in both wild allies and the cultivars. All the cultivars of Piper nigrum L. var. nigrum studied were tuberculate or granulate with very little variations, while the different wild species studied either possessed granulate or tuberculate pollen grains.