There are several wild almond species in Turkey included
Amygdalus orientalis
(Mill.),
Amygdalus turcomanica
(Lincz.),
Amygdalus fenzliana
(Fritsch) Lipsky,
Amygdalus trichamygdalus
(Hand.-Mazz.) Woronow,
Amygdalus arabica
(Olivier),
and
Amygdalus webbii
(Spach). These species offer a great value for the almond improvement; we studied the pollen
viability, germination ratio and pollen yield for seven genotypes of
A. orientalis, seven genotypes of
A. turcomanica all
growing under natural conditions in Southeastern Anatolia (Gaziantep and Sanliurfa provinces, Turkey). Almond cultivars
(
Prunus dulcis
[Mill.] D.A. Webb) obtained from Pozanti Agricultural Experimental Station, Çukurova University, were also
used in the experiment. The pollen viabilities of various almond genotypes were determined by 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium
chloride (TTC) and fluorescein diacetate (FDA) tests. At the end, pollen germination ratios were established according
to Petri dishes method
in vitro conditions (1% agar + 0, 10, 15 and 20% sucrose) while pollen yield was estimated with
hemacytometric methods. The results indicated that pollen viability ratios were close to each other in both methods for the
genotypes
A. orientalis and
A. turcomanica. Pollen germination ratios were found to be dependent on the sucrose content
as well as on the genotypes used. The pollen of almond cultivars showed similar germination ratios in all of the sucrose
concentrations while those pollens of
A. orientalis and
A. turcomanica genotypes displayed higher germination ratios in
10% sucrose. The number of anthers in one flower was higher in cultivars whereas the number of pollen grains was lower in
other almond species. While the number of pollen grains in one flower was relatively high in
A. orientalis genotypes, pollen
quality was high in all the three species under research. The results suggested that these two species, namely
A. orientalis
and
A. turcomanica could be employed for future almond breeding programs.
