Embryo sac and early ovule development in Oryzopsis miliacea and Stipa tortilis

Abstract

The ovules of Stipa tortilis and Oryzopsis miliacea are hemianatropous, bitegmetic, and pseudocrassinucellate (sensu Davis 1966). The hemianatropous shape of the ovule is the result of characteristic patterns of cell division and enlargement in the chalazal area and areas alongside the embryo sac. Embryo sac development in both is Polygonum-type and both have proliferating antipodals. Endosperm is nuclear, although in O. miliacea it is atypical in that nuclear division is synchronous within one portion of the embryo sac, e.g. micropylar, but not synchronous between different portions of the embryo sac, e.g., micropylar and chalazal. Differences in ovule initiation, persistence of the outer integument, fate of the inner integument, nature of the nucellus, shape of the embryo sac, nature of the synergids, cytoplasm of the egg, polar nuclei, and endosperm exist between these two taxa. Both synergids of O. miliacea undergo changes before fertilization and one degenerates before fertilization. The pollen tube enters the embryo sac at the base of the persistent synergid. There is presently insufficient embryological data to permit meaningful speculation on relationships between Stipa and Oryzopsis. Embryologically, Stipa and Oryzopsis are festucoid grasses, as much other evidence indicates. Embryo sac development in the Gramineae is more similar to that of the Restionaceae than to that of the Cyperaceae. This is in contradiction to recent speculations on the relationships of the Gramineae.