Committee Chair

Craddock, J. Hill

Committee Member

Benz, George W.; Schorr, Mark S.; Van Horn, Gene S.

Department

Dept. of Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to see if Castanea dentata (Marshall) Borkhausen and C. mollissima Blume are anemophilous or entomophilous and to investigate the direction and distance of C. dentata pollen dispersal. The study of C. dentata pollen dispersal patterns was set up at an isolated orchard in Cleveland, Tennessee. Pollen collectors were placed at 13 locations in an array 15.2, 30.4, 46 and 61 meters north, northeast and east from the northeast corner of the orchard with one collector in the orchard itself. Pollen counts averaged significantly higher at the orchard than at sites 15.2, 30.4, 46 and 61 meters away. Sixty percent of collected pollen was gathered at the orchard location. There were no significant differences among the number of pollen grains collected at 15.2, 30.4, 46, and 61 meters and no significant differences between the numbers of pollen grains collected east, north and northeast of the orchard. Over the ten day study period, there was a significant difference of the number of pollen grains collected among the days; there appeared to be a peak of pollen release on 20-21 June 2001. Findings from the insect pollination experiment indicate that C. dentata and C. mol/issima can be wind pollinated; however, the possibility of insect pollination could not be ruled out.

Acknowledgments

I thank Dr. Hill Craddock for his enthusiasm in spending countless hours teaching me about chestnut trees. I could not have completed this without his unending patience. I thank the members of my graduate committee, Drs. Gene Van Horn, George Benz and Mark Schorr for their suggestions. I appreciate Dr.Benz's insistence on perfection and Dr. Schorr's careful guidiance with the statistics portion of this paper. I also am grateful to Dr. Fred Hebard for suggesting the idea for this study. I thank the Dupont Corporation and Jeff Braswell for the microcospy services with my pollen slides. A special thank you to Dr. Bill McDonald of West Virginia University for lending the Rotorods used in this study as well as Kathie Smith and the Air Pollution Control Board for their valuable assistance in interpreting pollen and lending me supplies. This research was partly funded through support from the Tennessee Aquarium and the Summerfield Johnston Endowment for the Restoration of the American Chestnut.

Degree

M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science.

Date

5-2004

Subject

American chestnut; Chinese chestnut; Pollen--Dispersal

Discipline

Natural Resources and Conservation

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

viii, 30 leaves

Language

English

Call Number

LB2369.2 .B624 2004

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Download

Share

COinS