KARAKTERISASI STRUKTUR MORFOLOGI DAN VIABILITAS POLEN DARI LIMA KULTIVAR PISANG KEPOK (Musa paradisiaca L.)

Kepok bananas (Musa paradisiaca L.) have a variety of cultivars, but have different in genomes. These differences provided variant in morphological structure and pollen viability in any cultivar of kepok banana. This research aimed to obtain information related to differences of morphological structure character and the viability of pollen in five kepok banana cultivars. Exploration method is used in order to obtain plant materials from residents’ yard in Bandar Lampung City, Pesawaran dan Lampung Selatan Regency, Lampung Province. Five kepok banana cultivars were considered as treatments and three bananas’ flower from different plants were considered as replications. Acetolysis method was applied for preparation of pollen morphology and staining method is used to determine the viability of pollen. The results showed that the pollen was found in four cultivars, namely kepok abu, kepok kuning, kepok Manado and kepok kapas but none in kepok batu. The highest P/E index was found in kepok abu (0.946) and the lowest P/E index was found in kepok kuning (0.888). Based on the P/E index value of pollen form is subspheroidal and type of apertura is inapertura. The highest pollen viability is found in kepok kapas (44.45%) and the lowest in kepok manado (29.33%). However, the highest pollen viability occurs during the flower bloom. Pollen morphological structure of four kepok banana cultivars have similarity in structure and type of aperture, whereas pollen viability was not significantly different amongst cultivars which was influenced by storage time of flowers.