Effects of cold stress on floral morphology, anther dehiscence and esterase activity (±SE) in chickpea cultivars/lines grown in growth rooms.
 

Temperature (° C)	Cultivar/line
	Annigeri	ICCV 88502	ICCV 88503	Pant G 114	ICCV 88510	ICCV 88514
	Duration from bud appearance to flower opening (days)a
25/15	5.6±0.16	6.1±0.18	5.8±0.15	6.0±0.16	6.1±0.18	6.1±0.21
15/5	7.2±0.21	6.7±0.17	6.4±0.17	6.3±0.13	6.4±0.19	6.7±0.17
15/0	8.2±0.19	6.7±0.21	6.6±0.17	7.2±0.15	7.0±0.18	7.2±0.19
	Width of vexillum (mm)
25/15	6.5±0.21	6.8±0.21	6.7±0.25	7.1±0.23	6.8±0.21	7.0±0.20
15/5	6.1±0.20	6.5±0.21	6.7±0.21	7.2±0.19	6.7±0.22	7.1±0.17
15/0	6.3±0.24	6.5±0.23	6.8±0.24	7.2±0.21	7.0±0.19	6.7±0.21
	Length of style (mm)
25/15	6.4±0.18	6.6±0.21	6.4±0.22	6.9±0.19	6.5±0.22	6.7±0.16
15/5	5.7±0.19	6.5±0.17	6.2±0.18	6.1±0.21	6.6±0.11	6.7±0.19
15/0	4.4±0.16	6.3±0.19	6.3±0.19	5.7±0.22	5.9±0.14	6.4±0.18
	Length of ovary (mm)
25/15	1.9±0.07	2.0±0.08	1.8±0.07	2.0±0.07	1.9±0.08	1.9±0.07
15/5	1.4±0.06	2.1±0.08	1.9±0.06	2.0±0.06	2.0±0.07	1.8±0.07
15/0	1.3±0.06	1.9±0.07	1.8±0.05	1.9±0.07	1.9±0.07	2.0±0.08
	Flowers with fully dehiscing anthers (%)
25/15	100(17/17)b	100(15/15)	100(14/14)	100(15/15)	100(15/15)	100(16/16)
15/5	71(11/17)	93(14/15)	94(16/17)	87(13/15)	88(14/16)	88(15/17)
15/0	35( 6/17)	75(12/16)	81(13/16)	69(11/16)	76(13/17)	82(14/17)
	Partially dehiscent or indehiscent anthers per 10 flowers (no.)
25/15	0	0	0	0	0	0
15/5	26	5	4	7	8	6
15/0	41	9	7	19	15	12
	Flowers with pollen on stigma (%)
25/15	100(17/17)	100(15/15)	100(14/14)	100(15/15)	100(15/15)	100(16/16)
15/5	65(11/17)	93(14/15)	100(17/17)	100(15/15)	88(14/16)	88(15/17)
15/0	18( 3/17)	81(13/16)	88(14/16)	69(11/16)	71(12/17)	65(11/17)
	Esterase activity on stigmac
25/15	4.8±0.07	4.9±0.08	4.8±0.08	4.9±0.07	4.8±0.08	4.9±0.07
15/5	2.3±0.19	4.1±0.18	4.0±0.15	4.2±0.18	3.9±0.15	4.1±0.11
15/0	1.6±0.15	3.8±0.21	3.8±0.17	3.2±0.16	3.4±0.17	3.2±0.16

^aThe buds, which failed to open especially in the 15/0^oC regime, were not considered in calculations.
^bFigures in parentheses: (flowers with only dehiscing anthers or with pollen on stigma/total number of flowers tested)
^cEsterase activity was scored on a 1-5 scale (1, low and 5, high) 1 day before flower opening.
Note : Cultivar/line means were significantly different according to the Kruskal-Wallis test.