Mirandiba municipality in Pernambuco, is a prioritary conservation area for caatinga. It has almost 25% of Leguminosae species from the caatinga, where 23 species in 13 genera belong to the Mimosoideae subfamily and 6 species are endemics. The pollen grains of 19 mimosoid taxa were characterized by their pollen grains using light and scanning electron microscopy. All taxa are illustrated and keyed. Pollen morphology of these taxa is varied, mainly regarding pollen units; we found monads in Neptunia and Desmanthus; 8-grain uniplanar polyads in Calliandra depauperata and multiplanar ones in Mimosa spp. and Pityrocarpa moniliformis, tetrads also in Mimosa, polyads with 16 pollen grains in Anadenanthera, Inga, Parapiptadenia, Pithecellobium and Senegalia, and polyads with 32 pollen grains in Chloroleucon and Pithecellobium. Different pollen units allied to other morphometric and ectexine characters were useful to identify most mimosoid taxa from Mirandiba.
Leguminosae; Mimosoideae; caatinga; polyad; tetrad
