Abstract
ABSTRACT Hermodactylus tuberosus Mill. (Iridaceae) is a species with a very short style and a tricarpellar unilocular ovary. For ornamental purposes it is usually reproduced by means of tubers, although both vegetative and seed reproduction occur in nature. However, its capsules do not contain many seeds in comparison to the high number of ovules inside the ovary. To understand this conflicting process a study on H. tuberosus pollen-pistil interaction was carried out. Pollen viability was evaluated by different techniques. Germination rate was tested in vitro and in vivo after stigma, intrastylar and intraovarian pollinations. A high percentage of the pollen grains were found to be viable resulting in a high percentage of in vitro germination and a low rate of germination on the stigma. Indeed, many pollen tubes developed after intrastylar and intraovarian pollinations. Several anomalies characterized pollen germination and pollen tube growth in vitro and in vivo. Observations from field trials indicated that capsules were only produced from open or hand, cross- pollinated flowers, confirming that the plant is self- incompatible and not apomictic. In addition, all the mature capsules contained only a few mature seeds suggesting the existence of pre- and postzygotic seed set inhibition.
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