Airborne pollen flora of Jabalur – the central India

Abstract

The fortnightly aerobiological survey of pollengrains at five different sites at two differentheights (ground level and at 10 m) was carriedout at Jabalpur city during January toDecember, 1996. Air sampling was done for 30minutes at each sampling point by using aRotorod air sampler. A total of 84 pollen typesbelonging to 34 families of Angiospermae andone family of Gymnospermae were identified. Themaximum mean concentration (1.04/m3 air) ofpollen was contributed by Asteraceae followedby Amaranthaceae/Chenopodiaceae (0.77/m3 air)and the minimum (0.001/m3 air) byCucurbitaceae, Convolvulaceae and Sapotaceae.Maximum numbers of pollen grains werecontributed by herb species (62.07%) followedby shrubs (18.47%) and trees (14.96%). Asmall fraction, i.e., 4.50% of total pollenflora remained unidentified. Morphologicalanalysis revealed maximum concentration(1.81/m3) of triporate pollen grains. There wasa significant difference in the pollenconcentration at ground level and at 10 mheight. The ratio observed was 1.7 : 1.0.There was non-significant negative correlation(r = −0.196) between mean pollen concentrationand mean atmospheric temperature. May, thehottest month, showed minimum mean pollenconcentration (1.65/m3 air), whereas October,with moderate temperature, the maximum(10.86/m3 air).