The concentration of pollen from cereals and sedges in the atmosphere during the flowering of plants

The pollen atmospheric pollen supply of 11 species of grasses of the family Poaceae Barnh. (=Gramineae Juss.) and 5 species of sedges of the family Cyperáceae Juss. was investigated. The studied plants grow in the collection of «Lawn and ornamental grasses» of the Laboratory of Introduction of Ornamental Plants, Central Siberian Botanical Garden of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (CSBS SB RAS). They are actively used as components of lawn cultures and represent the group of ornamental grasses and sedges. Being dominants of natural plant communities, they produce a huge amount of pollen, which is one of the main sources of allergic diseases, causing seasonal pollinosis. Pollenization, distribution and particle transport rate depend on pollen composition. The relevance of studying this issue attracts not only allergologists, but also botanical scientists. As a result, we investigated the composition of pollen of cereal and sedge plants for the presence of clusters and determined the shares of clusters and individual pollen grains from the total number of pollen particles entering the atmosphere during flowering of plants. Our studies showed that pollen clusters are present in all analyzed samples. Experimental analysis of cereal pollen composition showed that the proportion of clusters can vary from 11,5% in Arrhenatherum elatius to 35,4% in Panicum capillare. Meanwhile, the proportion of pollen grains in these species ranges from 28,2% to 67,6% of total pollen particles, respectively (836; 1086). As for the studied sedge species, the cluster composition can vary from a minimum value of 28,6% in Carex vesicaria to a maximum of 67,9% in Carex altaica. and the proportion of pollen grains varies from 52,7% to 90,8% of all pollen particles (760; 467).