Determination of Pollen Quantity and Features of Pollen Dispersal for 41 Spray Cut Chrysanthemum Cultivars

In this study,feature of pollen dispersal and the key factors influencingi quantity of pollen dispersal of 41 spray cut chrysanthemum cultivars were systematically investigated,with an aim to establish foundation for less-dispersing pollen or non-dispersing pollen cultivars breeding.The results showed that:The number of disk floret per inflorescence,anthers per flower,pollen quantity per anther and the pollen quantity per inflorescence were observed among the tested cultivars,which were estimated to be 85.6–320.2 disk floret per inflorescence,5 anthers per flower in the vast majority of cultivars,0–1 017 grains per anther,0–807 840 grains per inflorescence respectively;There were 9 non-dispersing pollen cultivars(the anthers of 8 cultivars have pollens but no cracking,while only‘Kingfisher’has no pollens),11 less-dispersing pollen cultivars,9 moderate quantity of pollen dispersal cultivars and 12 high quantity of pollen dispersal cultivars among them.Clustering analysis was applied to analyse the pollen quantity per anther and pollen quantity per inflorescence that were grouped into four types:Vast,moderate,a few,none,according to pollen quantity.80% of tested cultivars are belonged to‘moderate’and‘a few’groups.All the results suggest that not only is the quantity of pollen dispersal of spray cut chrysanthemum positively related to the number of disk floret per inflorescence and pollen quantity per anther,but also it is positively related to the speed and degree of anther cracking.