Abstract
The ovules of kiwifruit, Actinidia deliciosa and A. chinensis var. chinensis, are axile, anatropous, unitegmic, and tenuinucellate. Megasporogenesis in the two species is similar, but at the tetrad stage, only the chalazal megaspore in A. chinensis develops, while in A. deliciosa any of the four megaspores may function. Megagametogenesis is of the Polygonum type. After fertilization the endosperm, which develops first, forms a web of thin-walled cells, while the embryo remains uninucleate for ca. 8 wk. Microscopic details are similar for the female and hermaphrodite flowers of A. deliciosa. Variation in the expression of "femaleness" was observed among individual flowers in female and hermaphrodite plants, although the number of ovules initiated in the hermaphrodite was lower than in the female plants. Female-type flowers on the hermaphrodite are not distributed evenly but are more common on some branches.
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