Advances in Life Sciences

Flowering biology and its relationship with activity of flower visitors was studied in brinjal hybrid MAHY-9. The crop started flowering 40–45 days after planting and 50% flowering was observed around 60–65 days after planting. Anthesis occurred early in the morning 06.00hr and flower longevity ranged from 1 to 5 days with maximum flower longevity of 3 days. Maximum anther dehiscence occurred between 9.30 and 10.00h with 36 per cent dehiscence. Pollen grains remained viable till 16.00h after which the germination percentage drastically reduced to less than 2%. Maximum Germination percentage of pollen grains was 24% at 10–11.00h. Mean style length of long styled flowers was 9.55±0.52 while it was 7.33±0.70 and 2.22±0.97 in medium and short styled flowers respectively Mean pollen to ovule ratio was found to be 313±41.45. Pollen grains to one ovule per flower ranged between 290 and 387. Heterostyly was observed, long styled flowers constituted 43.97% of flowers, 2.54% medium styled and 53.47% were short styled flowers. The most frequent flower visitors included two species of Xylocopa, viz., X. amethystina, X. aestuans followed by Apis dorsata, A. florea, Amegilla sp. and Tetragonula iridipennis. Activity of the bees was maximum at 09–10.00hrs because per cent anther dehiscence, pollen viability, and stigma receptivity was maximum at 09–10.00hrs so there is a relationship between activity of flower visitors and flowering biology of the crop.