Radiation contamination of the environment indicated by its gametocidic effect

Two Viola matutina Klok. populations growing in two areas of the thirty-kilometer zone of Chernobyl varying in γ-radiation background have been studied. Stable, repeated (during a period of 1987-1988) differences between the populations with respect to the amount of sterile pollen and the pattern of anther distribution curves have been revealed. It is suggested that the increased radiation loading is the cause of the increased occurrence of sterile pollen in one of the populations