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Pollen-mediated gene flow in Himalayan long needle pine (Pinus roxburghii Sargent)

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Abstract

Pollen migration in Pinus roxburghii has been estimated under two different conditions, viz. isolated single trees and at the fringe of natural forest. Trapping of pollen grains was conducted at geometrically increasing distances, i.e., 0, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280 and 2560 m from the source. The observations revealed that the scattering of pollen grains was not uniform in all directions and that they travelled up to 2.5 km towards the downhill direction, while in the uphill direction dispersion of pollen grains was restricted to 320 m from the source. Pollen frequency declined rapidly as the distance from the source increased, with the highest densities within 50–100 m.

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Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, DehraDun, Vide [project no. 37-11 ICFRE (R)]. The authors are thankful to both the anonymous reviewers of an earlier draft of this manuscript and to Prof. S. R. Ansari of the Department of Mathematics, HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal, for his help in mathematical modeling of the pollen dispersion data.

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  1. Department of Forestry, HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal, 246174, Uttaranchal, India

    C. M. Sharma

  2. Department of Forestry, Mizoram University, Aizawl, Mizoram, India

    V. P. Khanduri

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  1. C. M. Sharma
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  2. V. P. Khanduri
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Correspondence to V. P. Khanduri.

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Sharma, C.M., Khanduri, V.P. Pollen-mediated gene flow in Himalayan long needle pine (Pinus roxburghii Sargent). Aerobiologia 23, 153–158 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10453-007-9056-0

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