THE SPORES MICRO-MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY OF FIVE POLYSTICHUM SPECIES IN IRAN

In this research, five species of the genus Polystichum, belonging to Dryopteridaceae, namely, P. lonchitis, P. woronowii, P. setiferum, P. braunii and P. aculeatum, were collected from Gilan and Mazandaran Provinces and studied micro-morphologically. In order to compare the spores, their morphology and their ornamentation was studied. The spores each were picked from sporangia and each sample was coated by a thin layer of gold material was photographed using a Scanning Electro Microscopy (SEM). Shape, size, exine ornamentation of spores were studied for each species. P. lonchitis was found to have considerable differences from other species by its reticulated ornamentation, which distinguishes this species from the others.