Pollen Morphology And Variability Of Abies Alba Mill. Genotypes From South-Western Poland

The objective of this study was to investigate pollen morphology and ranges of intraspecific variability of Abies alba Mill. Pollen grains were collected from nine clonal seed orchards of A. alba in the Sudety Mountains, (South-Western Poland). At each seed orchard, 4-6 grafts were selected. Each individual (graft) was represented by 30 pollen grains and 1440 pollen grains were measured totally. Eight quantitative and four qualitative features of pollen grains were analysed. The diagnostic features of pollen grains for the studied species were: Exine surface of pollen corpus (cappa and leptoma) and sacci, the length of the polar axis (P), pollen shape (P/E ratio), and a new trait-saccus shape (A/B ratio - saccus width (A) to his length (B)). Pollen features made possible to differentiate seven individual genotypes (samples). To our knowledge, this is the first time that the intraspecific and interindividual variability of pollen grains of A. alba were investigated. The most different were the pollen grains from samples-genotypes 13 (Bystrzyca Klodzka) and 18 (Jugow), and also (although to a lesser extent) genotypes-11 (Kamienna Gora), 30, 31 (Jugow), and 44 (Szklarska Poreba). No significant relationships were observed between the pollen grain traits and the geographical location of the collection sites.