Pollen characterization of the bee flora from a Caatinga area of Northeast Brazil

Background: Plants and bees have coevolved throughout geological time, establishing a mutualistic relationship that results in feeding/resource obtention by the reproductive success of angiosperms.
 Questions Hypotheses: What is floristic composition vegetation visited Caatinga? How are pollen grains from Caatinga bee plant species characterized? Do present characters could be associated with pollination process?
 Studied species: We studied 45 belonging to 41 genera 23 angiosperm families. Among species, 37 % endemic Brazil, eight biome.
 Study site dates: Apiary within biome, State Bahia, Brazil. Climate warm semiarid. Fieldwork was carried out between August 2016 June 2017.
 Methods: bloom being Apis mellifera were collected during biweekly field expeditions, herborized, identified, deposited at HUNEB herbarium. Pollen acetolyzed, characterized, microphotographed under light microscopy.
 Results: Forty-five plants classified according observations specialized literature. morphology variable, nine had their described for first time. The apertures mainly tricolporate (44 %), pantoporate (15 inaperturate (13 exine ornamentation (micro)reticulate (46 %) (micro)echinate (33 %).
 Conclusions: Our suggest set palynological may favor entomophily.
 
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