Speaker : Stephen Azariah, Post-doctorate, IFP

Abstract

This is the presentation of a pollen key based on light microscopic (LM) studies of pollen types selected from Eastern Ghats (EG), India. This key, initially to be a personal identification tool for pollen of the EG, is presented here as the first comprehensive key of the modern pollen types of the EG, a large, fractured range of hills on the eastern side of the peninsular India. Pollen type is a term which indicates that pollen grains can be distinguished from other pollen grains either by one or by a combination of distinct characters. The stress of this work is that it does not deal with plant species but rather with pollen types as they are presented on the palynological spectrum. Though pollen grains of individual species can be distinctly described, in an assemblage of different morphotypes, such distinctions can not be made with light microscope. The pollen key and photos contain the most frequent and abundant pollen types found so far in the Holocene sediments of the EG, India. The key based on pollen morphology would be useful to carry out a standard, palynological analysis of the tropical forests distributed in EG, India.

Keywords : Pollen types; Paleopalynology; Pollen morphology; Pollen key; Eastern Ghats; India

Organisers : Department of Ecology, French Institute of Pondicherry.

Venue : Nehru conference hall, French Institute of Pondicherry, 11, Saint Louis Street, Pondicherry - 605 001.