Morphology, viability and pollen germination of European pear cultivars in the south of Brazil

There is a lack of information of production, viability and pollen germination of pear trees under conditions of productive orchards in southern Brazil.
The aim of this study was to characterize morphology, viability and pollen germination in the first and second flowering of pears cultivated in southern Brazil.
The experiment was carried out in an orchard of ‘Abate Fetel’, ‘Clapp’s Favourite’, ‘Packham’s Triumph’, ‘Rocha’, ‘Santa Maria’ and ‘William’s’ in the city of São Francisco de Paula, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Size, morphology, viability and germination of pollen grains were evaluated.
All parameters were analysed in the first bloom of all six cultivars, emitted from flower buds formed in the previous year, and in a second bloom that occurred in ‘Abate Fetel’, ‘Clapp’s Favourite’ and ‘Santa Maria’. Viable pollen grains of all cultivars presented prolate spheroidal conformation (polar diameter/equatorial or P/E=1.01-1.14). Second bloom was the main source of pollen grains in ‘Santa Maria’, which can lead to a higher rate of pollen germination than in the first bloom.
First bloom showed that ‘Clapp’s Favourite’ and ‘William’s’ had high pollen viability (minimum of 88.2 and 94.1%, respectively, in three seasons) and rate of pollen germination (49.2 and 60.3%).

I International Symposium on Reproductive Biology of Fruit Tree Species

B. de Castro, G.A.B. Marodin, P.H.G. Ferreira

pollen tube growth, first bloom, second bloom, Pyrus communis

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2022.1342.31