Observations on the pollen of 193 species of the Malvales belonging to the Flora of Central Africa and described from Congo have pointed out the following characters: The pollen of the Bombacaeae are breviaxe, tricolpate, reticulate (Bombax, Bombacopsis, Ceiba). Most of taxa of the Sterculiaceae belong to the following types: Breviaxe, tricolpate, very finely reticulate (Abroma, Byttneria, Nesogordonia, Theobroma); Subequiaxe, tricolpate, finely reticulate (Cola, Chlamydocola, Octolobus, Scaphopetalum) ; Subequiaxe, tricolpate, vermicate (Pterygota) ; Subequiaxe, multicolpate, very finely reticulate (Hermannia, Melochia, Waltheria) ; Equiaxe, tricolpate, echinate (Dombeya, Melania). The pollen of the Tiliaceae is of the type longiaxe, tricolpate, very finely reticulate. The Malavaceae are individualised by their pollen of the type equiaxe, tricolpate, echinate or equiaxe, polyporate, echinate. The genera Adansonia and Rhodognaphalon belonging to the Bombacaceae have breviaxe, triporate and shortly echinate pollen such that of the genus Triplochiton (Sterculaceae). The genera Sterculia, Pterygota of this family as well as some Tiliaceae (Christiana, Duboscia) are characterized by the subequiaxe, tricolpate, very finery reticulate pollen type. Classification based on those observations highlights the affinities and phylogeny of the genus and/or families within the Malvales.
