Ashoke Bhattacharya
Palynology Laboratory, National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow-226001, India
Kalyani Datta
Palynology Laboratory, National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow-226001, India
Subodh Kumar Datta
Floriculture Laboratory, National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow-226001, India
ABSTRACT
The present study deals with the floral biology, floral visitors and pollination of Jatropha curcas L. (Euphorbiaceae). Forenoon pattern of anthesis with subsequent pollen release was noticed. Each male flower produced 1617±100 pollen with P:O ratio as 539:1. The stigmas become receptive 2 h after anthesis with morphological differentiation. Nectar secretion coincided with pollen presentation schedule and stigma receptive duration. Each female flower produced higher amount (4.54 ± 0.82 μL) of nectar than male flower (1.92 ± 0.44 μL) in 1200 h. Fifty percent of female flowers set fruit with 53% fecundity rate, 32% apomixis rate and 2:3 seed-ovule ratio. The flowers attracted the insect visitors of Hymenoptera (Apis dorsata, A. florea, A. mellifera, Eumenes conica and Vespa sp.) and Coleoptera (Beetles). Among the different insect visitors Apis spp. were most frequent. It has been observed that the different grades of sucrose have an influence on insect behaviour, flower visits duration, pollen removal and deposition on stigmas by honeybees (Apis spp.). Highest number of pollen grains were transported and deposited on stigmas by A. dorsata when flowers were treated with 0.9 M sucrose, whereas, it was lowest by A. florea in 1.5 M sucrose treated flowers.
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How to cite this article
Ashoke Bhattacharya, Kalyani Datta and Subodh Kumar Datta, 2005. Floral Biology, Floral Resource Constraints and Pollination Limitation in Jatropha curcas L. Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences, 8: 456-460.
DOI: 10.3923/pjbs.2005.456.460
URL: https://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=pjbs.2005.456.460
DOI: 10.3923/pjbs.2005.456.460
URL: https://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=pjbs.2005.456.460
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