Pollen morphology of 52 species (out of c. 79) of the Bomarea subgenus Bomarea was examined using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), or using SEM alone. The studied species of Bomarea were stenopalynous, characterized by large, oblate, monosulcate monads with reticulate exine sculpture in most species. Wide variation was observed in quantitative palynological features. The studied taxa were divided into four major groups based on exine ornamentation observed under SEM: microreticulate, reticulate, coarsely rugulate, and psilate-perforate. The reticulate exine sculpture may be a plesiomorphic character state for the genus Bomarea, and the coarsely rugulate and finely rugulate-perforate or psilate-perforate exine sculptures may have evolved independently more than once. In agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) analyses of the genus Bomarea using quantitative pollen data, the studied species were distributed in either two (similarity-based) or four (dissimilarity-based) major clusters. Neither the recent molecular phylogenetic analyses nor the AHC analyses of Bomarea have recovered clades/clusters that represent traditionally recognized subgeneric taxa for the genus. Therefore, the most reliable infrageneric classification of Bomarea can be achieved by combining morphological, palynological, and molecular data from more extentive sampling of all the species.
agglomerative hierarchical clustering; Bomarea; exine sculpture; infrageneric classification; scanning electron microscopy
