529 Pollen Tube Growth in Stage 2 Pollinated Avocado Flowers
Individual avocado (Persea americana Mill.) flowers are perfect, opening two times to display two distinct reproductive stages on consecutive days. Stage 1 focuses on presentation of pistils and Stage 2 on presentation of pollen. The Stage 1 opening offers the greatest opportunity for outcrossing due to the absence of available pollen in that stage. Stage 2 flowers, however, are self-pollinated within flowers in direct proportion to the number of white stigmas present at the time of pollen dispersal. The potential success of these self-pollination events was examined in orchard trees of seven commercial Florida cultivars: Booth 7, Brooks Late, Choquette, Monroe, Simmonds, Tonnage, and Tower 2 and compared with hand-pollinations from complementary cultivars (cross pollination) and from flowers of the same cultivar (close pollination). The furthest advancement of pollen tubes down styles and into the ovaries on their way to the egg apparatus was noted in hundreds of individual flowers 24 and 48 h after pollen deposition on receptive white stigmas of the Stage 2 flowers. Virtually none of the seven cultivars exhibited pollen tubes reaching the egg apparatus by 24 h after deposition. By 48 h, however, pollen tubes had reached the egg apparatus in 25% to 85% of the pollinated flowers, depending upon cultivar. Pollen source was inconsequential. The results demonstrate the success of self-pollination in avocados. It is especially important for cultivars growing in humid climates, which display a high proportion of receptive white stigmas in Stage 2.