Spore morphology and systematics in genus <i>Christensenia</i>

Abstract

The spores of Christensenia are monolete, echinate, and superficially similar. However, detailed SEM study reveals differences in spore shape, size, and exospore characters, such as spine distance, length, curvature, banding, apex morphology, and fusion. These differences are taxonomically significant and correlate completely with characters of gross morphology in the three taxa in the genus.