2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Oil Tea (Camellia oleifera Abel.) is an important woody edible oil plant in China. Oil Tea suffers from low rate of fruit setting in production, which is related to the poor pollination. One of the important influencing pollination factors was pollen germination rate and the rate of pollen tube growth. Using the interspecific hybrids (C. oleifera and C. grijsii) clone ‘Y3’ as material, we studied the effects of sucrose, H₃BO₃, MgSO₄ and IAA on pollen germination by orthogonal design to determine the best pollen germination medium. The results showed that ‘Y3’ pollen germination rates were significantly affected by medium components, and the pollen germination rate varied from 29.13% to 56.84%. The pollen germination rate was the highest in the medium T7 (56.84%), which was 44.74% higher than control group (12.10%). The pollen tube length was the longest in the medium T5 (2184.75 μm), while pollen tube length of control group was 608.89 μm. The most of effect of four factors on pollen germination rate and pollen tube growth was MgSO₄. The optimal culture medium for promoting pollen tube growth of Oil Tea ‘Y3’ was: 1% agar, 150 g·L^-1 sucrose, 0.15g·L^-1 H₃BO₃, 0.07 g·L^-1 MgSO₄ and 0.01 g·L^-1 IAA. The results of this paper may provide information for foliar application Mg and IAA, which can improve pollen tube growth and fruit setting of Oil Tea in practice.