Determination of pollen fertility in Lumnitzera rosea in Thua Thien Hue province

Lumnitzera rosea (Gaud.) Presl. 1834 is a scarce mangrove species belonging to the genus Lumnitzera, family Combretaceae, order Myrtales of class Magnoliopsida. The study was carried out on flowers of Lumnitzera rosea collected from Tan My Hotel (now called Tam Giang resort), Phu Tan Commune, Phu Vang District, Thua Thien-Hue Province, Vietnam to determine pollen fertility in this plant. Pollen fertility tests in vitro by aceto-carmine staining technique were used in evaluating pollen fertility (Reijieli R. Rigamoto et al, 2002). Using dissecting forceps and needle, the anthers were collected from the flowers. Mature anthers were crushed and subsequently transfer in micro-eppendorf containing 60µl 5% aceto-carmine. The eppendorf solution was centrifuged to allow pollen to fully dissociate from the anther and a subsample was gently placed on the slide. The slide was then observed under a light microscope. For each slide ten randomly selected fields were observed under the 10x objective (100x magnification). The size of pollen grains was measured under a light microscope fitted with an ocular micrometer (John K. Kelly et al, 2002). Pollen production status of the flowers was determined. The mean diameter of viable pollen grains is 26,75 ± 0,51µm and the mean diameter of non-viable pollen grains is 25,15 ± 0,95µm. The mean pollen fertility is 19,53 ± 1,26%. The number of pollen per flower is 3567,70 ± 86,68.