notes on astragalus sect. macrophyllium with a cytogenetic report on its two tyetraploid species

habit and pollen morphology were studied in four taxa belonging to astragalus sect. macrophyllium in iran. data obtained from pollen morphology support the phenetic grouping based on habit morphology. in addition, meiotic chromosome number and behavior were analyzed in two species of the section. the species were cytogenetically analyzed and found to be tetraploid and possess a 2n = 4x = 32 chromosome number consistent with the proposed base number of x = 8 for the section from the check list of legumes of northern eurasia. the taxa displayed an almost regular bivalent pairing and chromosome segregation at meiosis. however, some meiotic abnormalities observed here included varied degrees of chromosome stickiness and laggards in telophase i and ii, asynchronous nuclei in telophase i, multipolar cells and cytomixis.