The Chen-Am alliance is of worldwide distribution, comprising approximately 169 genera and 2,400 species. The pollen grains of 35 taxa (29 belonging to Chenopodiaceae and six to Amaranthaceae) were collected and investigated using LM & SEM. The main target is to throw light on pollen morphological characters as well as to estimate the implication of the pollen criteria in clarifying the relationships between the studied taxa. The obtained pollen data viz. pollen exine sculpture, number & diameter of pores, inter-poral distance as well as the number and shapes of ektexinous bodies were considered diagnostic at the specific level. Based on the palynological data an artificial key and a dendrogram were constructed to interpret the relationships between the taxa under investigation. The pollen grains of studied taxa of Amaranthaceae are grouped under four types while that of Chenopodiaceae are grouped into six types. Based on pollen data the studied taxa were nested within each other and this is reinforced the treatment of Amaranthaceae and Chenopodiaceae as one distinct taxonomic entity.
Key words: Amaranthaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Pollen morphology, Stenopalynous.
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