VARIATION IN POLLINATOR ASSEMBLAGE AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF WHITE CLOVER (TRIFOLIUM ALEXANDRINUM L.)

The study was conducted to understand the variation in pollinator assemblage due to three different land use types (forest edge, hilly rain torrent and agricultural land) and its ultimate impact on reproductive performance of Trifolium alexandrinum at district Dera Ghazi Khan (Punjab) Pakistan. Two parameters of pollinator assemblage i.e. abundance and species richness and four parameter of reproductive success of T. alexandrinum were studied i.e. number of seeds/head, seed weight/head, number of abnormal seeds/head and germination. Abundance and species richness were the highest near forest edge and in hilly rain torrent, respectively while both were the lowest in agricultural land. Reproductive performance of T. alexandrinum was the best near forest edge in terms of number of seeds / head, seed weight/head and germination while it was the poorest in agricultural land in terms of number of abnormal seeds and germination. Species richness failed to predict any of the four parameters of reproductive success however; abundance was strongly related with the germination. For better assessing the role of assemblage on plant reproductive success, future studies should explicitly categorize pollinators into functional groups on the basis of their relative pollination efficiencies and then assess their role in plant reproductive success.