Artificial Pollination, Pollen Viability, and Storage in White Yam

Authors

M. O. Akoroda, University of Ibadan
J. E. Wilson, University of Ibadan
H. R. Chheda, University of Ibadan

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Tropical Root Crops

Publication Date

1-1-1981

First Page

189

Last Page

194

Abstract

We pollinated while yam (Dioscorea rotunda/a) by hand using three techniques: a camel-hair brush was used to pick up and transfer pollen from anthers to stigmas of open female flowers: a pointed tip of a bamboo splinter was used to excise anthers from open male flowers and to insert them into open female flowers; and pollen suspension in an aqueous culture medium was dropped through a blunt-tipped 1-2-ml syringe into open female flowers, The brush technique was most effective and yielded 147 seeds per day compared with 49 and 11 for the splinter and the dropper techniques, respectively. The potentially high seed yield per day of the brush method resulted mainly from the high percentage of fruit set (27 .8) and the large number (450) of flowers that could be pollinated in a day.

Recommended Citation

Akoroda, M. O.; Wilson, J. E.; and Chheda, H. R., "Artificial Pollination, Pollen Viability, and Storage in White Yam" (1981). A. Paper 56.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/bee_lab_a/56