Abstract
In Laurus nobilis L. (Lauraceae) the development of female flowers (pistillate), between floral meristem differentiation and fruit formation was inspected through histological sections and SEM techniques. The reproductive development of the female flower starts when the apical meristem converts into a floral meristem. Four tepals, four stamens and a carpel are developed from the floral meristem in turn. Filaments emerge however, anther development is arrested, and stamens become nonfunctional staminodes. The stigma is of the dry type. The solid style being short and thick consists of an epidermis, a cortex, a vascular bundle and a core of transmitting tissue composed of elongated cells. In the style a funnel-shaped zone extending from within the stigma to the stylar base is visible. The presence of high amounts of sugars and lipid substances within and around the vascular bundles are identified by histochemical techniques. The ovary contains an anatropous, bitegmic and crassinucellate ovule. Starch grains are present throughout the development of nucellar tissue. The chalazal region of nuclear endosperm forms a short haustorium. Endosperm does not exist in mature seed; the cotyledons are piled with considerably large starch grains. Idioblasts are observed in all stages of development.
Highlights
Unisexuality is very common in animals, hermaphroditism is the rule in angiosperms (Tanurdzic and Banks, 2004)
Flower morphology The flowering phase in female trees of L. nobilis happens between March and May
Female flower buds exist in groups of five, at the tip of shoots (Fig. 1), covered by bud scales
Summary
Unisexuality is very common in animals, hermaphroditism is the rule in angiosperms (Tanurdzic and Banks, 2004). In flowering plants approximately 10% of species are dioecious, producing flowers of one sex only on each plant (Dellaporta and Calderon-Urrea, 1993). The spectrum interval of unisexual flower development evolves from the differentiation of organ primordia until the formation of the sex organs which are completely developed but non-functional (Dellaporta and CalderonUrrea, 1993). In dioecious Silene species, both the stamen and carpel primordia are present in both sexes, with the developmental arrest of the inappropriate sex occurring at early stages of floral development (Ye et al, 1991). The stage of arrest is later in maize, when the organ primordia are well defined but prior to their full maturation and meiosis (Dellaporta and Calderon-Urrea, 1993). The arrested development of the sex organs is not accidental; it is manipulated by the environmental conditions and genotype (Kinet et al, 1981)
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