A MORPHOLOGY AND PALYNOLOGY OF THE GENUS KAEMPFERIA L. (KENCUR) FROM WEST SUMATRA

Atiqa Zhafira Syahputri Rinaldi, Nurainas, Syamsuardi 2024. Morphology and Palynology of the Genus Kaempferia L. (Kencur) from West Sumatra. Floribunda 7(5): 202 – 210 — The Kaempferia, commonly known as “kencur" in Indonesia, is one of the genus of Zingiberaceae which is widely used by Indonesian people as traditional medicine, spices, and ornamental plants. In this study, we observed Kaempferia species in West Sumatra and aimed to analyze the morphological characteristic including pollen morphology and its contribution as a distinguishing character in the Kaempferia genus. Pollen morphology observations were done using a light microscope (LM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results revealed that there were five species of Kaempferia in West Sumatra, namely K. angustifolia, K. elegans, K. galanga, K. pulchra, and K. rotunda. Vegetative and generative morphological characters that play an important role in distinguishing the five Kaempferia species in West Sumatra are the shape of rhizome, leaf, lateral staminode, labellum, stigma type, and apex of anther crest. The pollen grain characters found were all monolete, isopolar, large to very large in size, sub-spheroidal, inaperture, and also reticulate and rugulate in tectum character. The pollen morphology character of Kaempferia resembles with the genera Boesenbergia, Cornukaempferia, and Curcuma but its tectum has contributed to distinguishing the Kaempferia genus from other genus in the Zingiberaceae family.