Macro- and micromorphological characters of the generative organs of two microcenopopulations of Salicornia perennans (S. prostrata), conventionally named "red" and "green" forms (by the predominant color of shoots, since the sprout stage until the death of the plant) growing on the coast of the Kuialnyk Estuary (Odesa Region) were studied. The need for a detailed comparative morphological study of the representatives of both microcenopopulations was due to some differences between them revealed earlier in the biochemical composition and ontogeny features. To study the morphological characteristics of inflorescences, flowers, pollen grains, fruits and seeds of S. perennans, light and scanning electron microscopy techniques were used. It has been demonstrated that all studied samples of this species are characterized by fleshy, cylindrical, spicate inflorescences on a short stalk. Flowers are without bracts, small, bisexual, immersed in the stem tissue, with a simple, triangular perianth obtuse at the edge, with 1–2 stamens and 2 stigmas. The shape of the flower elements and characteristics of the inflorescence are similar in plants of "green" and "red" microcenopopulations. Pollen grains of S. perennans are pantoporate, spheroidal in shape; medium-sized. Pores are circular, with distinct or indistinct borders. The exine sculpture is spinulose, occasionally with small perforations between the spinules, with the sculpture of pore membranes spinulose. The pollen grains of representatives of both microcenopopulations of S. perennans are similar (almost indistinguishable). Representatives of both microcenopopulations have ovoid single-seeded fruits with a thin homocellular pericarp, covered with the remains of an almost transparent perianth and very small ovoid seeds covered with short, simple hairs. In all samples of "red" and "green" plants, exotesta has similar surface structure, with a similar ornamentation (anticlinal walls meandering, with precise contours, periclinal walls slightly convex, finely tuberculate). The absence of qualitative carpological features, with the exception of the coloration of the remains of the perianth, between the plants of the studied microcenopopulations, is demonstrated. Further ecological-geographical studies, as well as the use of molecular methods, are necessary for resolving the question of a possible taxonomic status of representatives of the "green" and "red" microcenopopulations.

Keywords: Chenopodiaceae, taxonomic status, microcenopopulations, morphological features, generative organs

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