Evaluation of Dypsis lutescens (H. Wendl.) pollinic viability by certain colorimetric tests

Dypsis lutescens is predominant in regions with tropical, subtropical and equatorial climate. Areca, has considerable commercial value in Brazil, is highly cultivated in large scale for landscaping and decoration purposes. The objective of this work was to evaluate the viability of D. lutescens pollen through the staining test, using Lugol 2%, 2% acetic Orcein, 1% Malachite Green, Methylene Blue, 1% Fuchsin, 5% Giemsa and the Reactive of Alexander. For the tested dyes, the viability of the pollen was determined by the staining aspect where it was considered feasible the protoplasm pollen with defined staining and unviable the pollen with stained exina and protoplasm absence. To prepare the slides, the floral buds were cut diagonally with the scalpel to remove the anthers, then the maceration process of the anthers was made with a glass stick, to release the pollen, with a drop of 0.5 mL of each dye, covering the material with a coverslip, after that the slide was observed in an optical microscope at 40x, using the scanning procedure, counting 300 pollen per slide, with 5 repetition for each dye, totalizing 1500 grains. In the present study, it is possible to conclude that Areca D. lutescens palm, although presenting low pollen viability percentages, for some dyes to which it was tested, Acetic orcein 2% Green malachite 1% Methylene blue and Guiemsa 5% showed good results to distinguish viable pollens from unviable ones, being these dyes indicated to test the pollen viability of the species.