Palynological studies of some South Indian members of Phaseoleae (Papilionaceae) and its bearing on the systematics of the tribe

Pollen morphology of 46 species under 23 genera of the tribe Phaseoleae (Papilionaceae) from South India was studied by LM and SEM observations. The treatment of the tribe in the classifications of Bentham and Hooker, Hutchinson, and Polhill and Raven is by and large similar except for the tribal status given by Hutchinson to the subtribes of Bentham and Hooker. However, in Polhill and Raven in which the genus Pueraria has been shifted from Bentham and Hooker's subtribe Dioc1ieae to a subtribe of Glycininae. This shifting does not gain palynological support. The proposal by Raven to separate the genus Erythrina, assigning it a monotypic tribal status appears to gain strong palynological support in as much as all the members of the genus possess a strikingly different apertural feature (3-porate).