POLLEN VIABILITY OF SOME TREES OF NORTH-WESTERN PUNJAB, INDIA

Plants perform various vegetative and reproductive functions throughout the year in order to persist in their habitats. Pollen viability is the necessity of plants for their reproductive success. Thus, the study of pollen viability has attained much attention of the researchers as it also contributes to the studies like hybridization programs, evolutionary ecology, fruit breeding programs etc. The pollen viability varies from species to species. Different approaches including the staining methods have been used to study pollen viability of different plant species. This paper deals with the study of pollen viability of twenty five tree species of Amritsar using three stains on fresh and heat treated pollen (control) and to suggest suitable stain for each species studied. It is recommended that some type of control such as killed pollen should be used to check the potential of a dye to test pollen viability of a particular species.