Early ontogenetic development of the pistillate inflorescence in a diploid perennial teosinte (Zea diploperennis, Poaceae)

Abstract

CAMARA-HERNANDEZ J. & GAMBINO, S., 1991. Early ontogenetic development of the pistillate inflorescence in a diploid perennial teosinte (Zea diploperennis, Poaceae). The early ontogeny of pistillate inflorescences of %ea diploperennis in plants grown at the latitude of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is investigated using the scanning electron microscope. The pattern of development of the inflorescence is similar to that in staminate and mixed inflorescences, starting with the formation of a pair of spikelets from a common branch primordium initiated in the axil of a bract on the ear axis. This bract arrests its development and aborts early. After initiation of an outer glume on both spikelet primordia, the pedicellate spikelet arrests its growth and aborts resulting in the mature inflorescence having two rows of solitary spikelets arranged distichally. This is significantly different from the pattern observed by other authors in plants grown in different environments (such as in natural populations in Mexico).