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A new technique for estimating pollen viability utilizing Nitro Blue Tetrazolium (Nitro-BT) is given. Pollen of 16 taxa was studied and scored for stainability. A comparison was made between Nitro-BT-stained pollen samples and aniline-blue-lactophenol-stained samples, because the validity of the latter stain has been questioned in recent years. It is demonstrated that Nitro-BT can discriminate between pollens which have a capacity for oxidative metabolism, representing potential viability, and those which do not. Suggestions for pollen stainability studies are given.
Hauser et al. (Sat,) studied this question.