Pollen Flora of Maharashtra State
Contents: Foreword. Preface. Alphabetical index of family names. 1. General introduction. 2. Methodology. 3. Pollen keys. 4. Systematic descriptions. 5. Magnoliopsida. 6. Liliopsida. 7. Selected bibliography. 8. Glossary of palynological terms. Index. Scientific names. Authors' names. Plates.
The pollen is the most vital unit in the flowering plants with a special structure and function. It is a single cell, in a way, with a shell, the exine, withstanding destruction and decay, thereby ensuring the prime need of protection of the tiny bit of protoplasm inside. At the same time as giving protection, the exine embodies in it such morphological characteristics that serve to identify the plant it belongs to, thus becoming useful in studies of plant taxonomy and phylogeny. With the advancements in biological techniques and analysis, the pollen unit has come to become an important parameter for both basic and applied purposes involving not only plant taxonomy but a wide range of areas including the emerging ones like pollution, biotechnology and environment where pollen is used as an index in solving an array of problems relating to human health and welfare.
In India, the study of pollen has a short history traced back to 1947 when the late Prof. Birbal Sahni stated that "the material is vast but trained workers are lacking." His concern was the identification of fossil pollen occurring in a dispersed state in the sediments of Tertiary and later geological periods, which were local and regional in occurrence. In such a context, the preparation of regional pollen floras became important and the first step in that direction was the publication of the "Pollen Flora of the Western Himalayas" which was primarily meant for the identification of the Quaternary fossil pollen from the Karewa sediments of Kashmir. In the following years the pollen flora investigations did not gain the pace it deserved to, which not only could help identification of dispersed pollen in fossil sediments, honeys or air but also serve to contribute immensely towards the preparation of the Pollen Flora of India, ultimately. It is in this background that the elaborate study made by Dr T S Nayar on the "Pollen Flora of Maharashtra State" has a special significance which, I hope, will set a chain reaction covering the various states/floral zones of the country.
The morphological descriptions of the pollen grains given by Dr Nayar are primarily based on the data collected by means of the light microscope but for a few, observations made from SEM pictures. Supporting the data are over 1100 microphotographs spread over 67 plates which by itself form an album for reference to future workers engaged in pollen identifications. The pollen keys provided should help taxonomists in settling the identity of taxa, both at generic and species levels.
