Palynology of the Venezuelan Andes

The results of palynological analyses from the Mérida Andes, Venezuela, from seven stratigraphic sections covering the last 13,000 years are discussed. An interpretation of the climate and vegetation for this time interval shows that the composition of the high montane vegetation and its altitudinal position was not constant during the Late Quaternary, the climate changed at the end of the Pleistocene and there were small oscillations during the Holocene.

The representation and abundance of arboreal pollen and spores in the old sediments as compared with modern deposition indicates the presence of: I. families and genera with high pollen or spore production and dispersion (Podocarpus, Alnus, Hedyosmum, and Cyatheaceae); 2. families with low pollen dispersion power, among them the Moraceae and Myrtaceae; 3. one genus among the Compositae (Coespeletia) which is probably anemophilous; 4. one species of montane Gramineae (Pariana stenolemma) which is probably not anemophilous, presenting the first case of insect-pollinated grasses in the tropics of South America.