Flowering and Airborne Pollen Occurrence in a Pinus sylvestris Seed Orchard Consisting of Northern Clones

Abstract

To explain the high background pollination rate detected in earlier studies, this study investigated the flowering phenology of a Scots pine seed orchard with respect to airborne pollen occurrence during 1992 and 1993. The receptive period of the female strobili and the shedding period of the male strobili were observed visually. Airborne pollen was monitored with Rotorod traps located inside and outside the seed orchard. There was no time gap in the onset of flowering between the earliest female and male strobili in 1992. Female flowering began 3 days earlier than male flowering in 1993, and the earliest strobili were probably pollinated by pollen transported long distance from more southerly areas. The almost simultaneous peak in pollen occurrence inside the seed orchard and in surrounding pine stands indicates that the seed orchard clones are not temporally isolated from sources of contamination. However, pollen concentrations inside the seed orchard were higher than those in the surrounding stands. Therefore, flowering phenology cannot sufficiently explain the observed pollen contamination rates in this seed orchard.