XVI International Botanical Congess

The subfamily Monsteroideae is closely related to the Pothoideae into which it is placed last time on the base of cladistic analysis and other data (Grayum, 1990). Investigation of pollen grains by SM, SEM and TEM has discovered that these are characterized by a tectate-granulate-columellate type of exine structure common for both subfamilies. Usually pollen grains of Monstereae possess zonosulcate apertures, as for Pothoideae, the same type of apertures was found in Zamioculcadeae, what supports its treatment as a link to Monsteroideae. As the TEM studying of ultrathin sections shows, the Spathiphyllum pollen exine is characterized by peculiar polycolpate type, unknown for other genera of this family, that provides evidence of the specialization in comparison with other genera of the subfamily.