Abstract The subtribe Ligeriinae, composed of three genera (Paliavana Vand., Sinningia Ness and Vanhouttea Lem.) and species with wide morphological differentiation, has not been investigated satisfactorily yet in terms of palynology. Thus, the pollen grains of 35 Brazilian species of Ligeriinae (Gesneriaceae) were studied under light microscopy and some species under scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The aim of this study was to characterize the pollen morphology of selected species from the subtribe presenting morphological pollen data (qualitative and quantitative) in an attempt to characterize the studied genera and provide diagnostic data in their systematics. This represents an initial study for this tribe as it involves approximately one third of the species. The pollen grains were acetolyzed, measured and described qualitatively. Quantitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and multivariate statistics. The species were analyzed considering 12 quantitative pollen characteristics. The analyses were conducted on a total of 76 specimens sampled. The study revealed that the diagnostic morphological features of the pollen grains studied were: amb, shape, type of apertures and exine ornamentation. On the basis of these traits, Vanhouttea calcarata and all Sinningia species show similarity, while the two Paliavana species differ from each other and are easily discriminated also from the two other genera. Furthermore, the Sinningia species analyzed so far can be characterized as stenopalynous. The pollen characteristics are useful for the taxonomical study of these genera. Nevertheless, the results obtained indicate the need to expand the palynological investigations in the genus Sinningia.

中文翻译：

---

Ligeriinae Hanst 的花粉形态。（苦苣苔科）：诊断特征及其系统重要性

摘要 Ligeriinae亚部落由3个属（Paliavana Vand.、Sinningia Ness和Vanhouttea Lem.）组成，形态分化较广，在孢粉学方面尚未得到满意的研究。因此，在光学显微镜下研究了 35 种巴西 Ligeriinae（苦苣苔科）的花粉粒，并在扫描和透射电子显微镜下研究了一些物种的花粉粒。本研究的目的是表征来自亚部落的选定物种的花粉形态，提供形态学花粉数据（定性和定量），以试图表征所研究的属并在其系统学中提供诊断数据。这代表了对该部落的初步研究，因为它涉及大约三分之一的物种。花粉粒被乙酰化，定性地测量和描述。定量数据通过描述性统计和多变量统计进行分析。考虑到 12 种定量花粉特征，对物种进行了分析。对总共 76 个采样的样本进行了分析。研究表明，所研究的花粉粒的诊断形态特征是：边缘、形状、孔类型和外壁纹饰。基于这些特征，Vanhouttea calcarata 和所有 Sinningia 物种表现出相似性，而这两个 Paliavana 物种彼此不同，也很容易与其他两个属区分开来。此外，迄今为止分析的 Sinningia 物种可以表征为 stenopalynous。花粉特征可用于这些属的分类学研究。尽管如此，