A systematic analysis of pollen morphology of Acanthaceae genera with contorted corollas

Abstract The variation in pollen morphology is described in genera of Acanthaceae with contorted aestivation (Burkill and Clarke 1899-1900). It is argued that the pollen types of Lindau (1895) are conceptually inadequate for describing the complete range of palynological variation in the family. A parsimony analysis of pollen data is presented. The results of the analysis are radically different from classifications proposed previously. The classifications of Lindau (1895), Clarke (1885), and Burkill and Clarke (1899-1900) are compared, in terms of the new pollen data, to the results of the analysis, and are found to have relatively low consistency indices.