Taxonomic evaluation using pollen grain sculpture and seed coat characters of 11 taxa of genus Hibiscus (Malvaceae) in Egypt

Pollen grain morphology and seed coat characters of 11 cultivars belonging to two species of genus Hibiscus (Family Malvaceae) namely H. esculentus, H. abelmoschus and H. sabdariffa were investig ated. This study was carried out using light microscope (LM) and scanning electronmicroscopy (SEM). Pollen morphology of this genus is fairly uniform. Generally radially symmetrical apolar, mostly spheroidal, pantoporate. Seed exomorphic characters revealed four types of ornamentations; reticulate, ocealate, foveolate and ruminate. Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS–PAGE) was employed to characterize those taxa. Thirty-one bands of seed protein profiles have been constructed from the gel. The produced dendrograms that were analyzed by STATISCA program using UPGMA clustering method showed a close affinity among the seven H. esculentus cultivars and the four H. sabdariffa cultivars.