Pollen morphological features of nine Iranian species of the genus Pedicularis were examined using light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We studied the pollen morphology of P. cabulica, P. caucasica, P. condensata, P. pycnantha, P. rechingeri, P. rhinanthoides, P. sibthorpii, P. straussii and P. wilhelmsiana, among which all except P. condensata, P. rhinanthoides and P. sibthorpii are palynologically described here for the first time. We observed two main types of pollen aperture (trisyncolpate and bisyncolpate) and four of exine sculpturing (microscabrate-reticulate, microfoveolate-microscabrate, retipilate and microscabrate). The results reveal the taxonomic significance of palynological characters in the genus, and the taxonomic implications are discussed here.
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