Hand Pollination of Amorphophallus paeoniifolius

The pollen of A. paeoniifolius does not store well, and it loses it's viability quickly. The biological reason for this is that the pollen is trinucleate and is sensitive to desiccation. Other species of Amorphophallus, such as A. konjac, are known to have binucleate desiccation insensitive pollen that can be stored dry for many months and still retain good viability.

The storage viability of A. paeoniifolius can be extended for a short time by placing the pollen in a dry vessel that is stored under high humidity in a refrigerator.

You can learn more about pollen storage here, and about extending trinucleate pollen viability of Arabidopsis during storage here.

This page was created by Scott Hyndman for the I.A.S. on January 7, 2001.