Storage in an Organic Solvent as a Means for Preserving Viability of Pollen Grains

Abstract

Pollen grains of Lilium auratum, Lilium longiflorum, Camellia sasanqua and Impatiens balsamina were soaked in various kinds of organic solvents such as acetone, benzene, petroleum benzine, benzyl alcohol, butanol, ethanol, methanol, isopropanol, diethyl ether, petroleum ether and choroform, and stored at 4–6 C for 24 hr. All pollen grains except in benzyl alcohol showed evidence of viability, and grains which had been stored in acetone, benzene, petroleum benzine, diethyl ether, petroleum ether and chloroform produced longer pollen tubes than grains of fresh pollen, especially Camellia sasanqua, whose pollen grew tubes 3 times as long as those of a control. Lilium auratum pollen grains had retained their viability after 80 days in acetone, benzene, petroleum benzine, diethyl ether and petroleum ether, and generative nuclei in pollen thus stored divided to form 2 sperm nuclei in artificial culture.