Pollen characteristics and stigma receptivity for Anemone coronaria L.

To obtain crossing products, an efficient pollination and subsequent fertilization is essential. This efficient pollination is achieved by pollen germination and tube growth. Here, these pollen characteristics of 2 genetically differentiating cultivars of Anemone coronaria L. were investigated in vitro. For the essential components boron, calcium and an osmoticant, only calcium showed to be crucial for pollen germination. Boron concentrations influenced the pollen tube length with a concentration of 100 mg.l-1 H3BO3 resulting in the longest pollen tubes. For the osmoticant sucrose, a concentration of 100 g.l-1 caused a significant positive effect on both pollen germination and pollen tube length for the 2 cultivars. The cultivars reacted similarly with respect to the investigated compounds. Next to this, the pollen development was correlated with 8 different flower stages in A. coronaria. As a final point, the germination of an optimized pollen germination medium was compared with in vivo pollen germination in cross-pollinations within the same cultivar (identified by aniline blue staining). For ‘Mistral Wine’, pollen germination percentage was lower in vitro than in vivo, while ‘Wicabri Blue’ pollen showed no significant difference in germination rates in vivo and in vitro. To achieve fertilization a following requisite is that the stigma is receptive. To study this, the most receptive female flower stage of the 8 different flower stages for A. coronaria was characterized by aniline blue staining. A. coronaria clearly showed protogyny.