Storage of Bahiagrass Pollen at Different Temperatures

Paspalum is an important genus of grasses, and some species are used for forage in the warmer regions of the world. Efforts to develop improved cultivars often require intra‐ and interspecific hybridization, but asynchronous flowering sometimes prevents hybridization between parental species. One method of circumventing this problem is to store pollen using cryopreservation so pollen will be available to pollinate the female parent when it flowers. Bahiagrass ( Paspalum notatum Flügge) was used to determine if Paspalum pollen can be preserved using long‐term cold storage. Pollen was dehydrated with LiCl, MgCl 2 , NaOH, and silica gel for 30, 60, and 120 min. Both dehydrated and nondehydrated pollen were stored at 4, −20, and −196°C for 10, 60, 120, and 180 d. After thawing, pollen stainability and in vivo germination were used to assess viability. Stainability of fresh pollen was 73.3%, and for treated and stored pollen, it ranged from 25.3 to 71.3%. Storage at −20 and −196°C was superior to storage at 4°C. Pollen dehydrated with LiCl for 30 min stored best at −196°C; pollen dehydrated for 120 min with silica gel and for 30 and 60 min with MgCl 2 stored best at −20°C. All samples regardless of treatment, storage temperature, or length of storage had viable pollen. These findings demonstrate that bahiagrass pollen can be stored in long‐term cold conditions, and this procedure can be used to circumvent problems associated with asynchronous flowering between parental species used in wide hybridization programs.