Pollen morphology of eidotheoideae: Implications for phylogeny in the proteaceae

Pollen morphology of Eidothea zoexylocarya A.W.Douglas & B.P.M.Hyland is detailed from light and both scanning and transmission electron microscope analyses. Eidothea shares with Persoonia and several taxa within tribes Conospermeae and Proteeae oblate, isopolar, triporate pollen with a tectate perforate-retitectate exine composed only of ektexine that thins and is disrupted by lacunae and radial channels in the apertural regions. These characters have taxonomic resolution within the Proteaceae and suggest a link between Subfamily Eidotheoideae and Subfamilies Persoonioideae and Proteoideae; however, sculpturing of Eidothea pollen differs in fine detail from that reported from the Persoonioideae and Proteoideae. The fossil pollen taxa Proteacidites niridus Dudgeon and P. punctiporus Macphail & Truswell are similar in apertural characters but sculptural attributes are distinct and exine stratification and structure of the fossil taxa await documentation.