STAINING PROCEDURE FOR THE OBSERVATION OF OLIVE POLLEN TUBE BEHAVIOUR

Aniline blue fluorescence method have been applied to the study of pollen tube characteristics and its dynamic along the pistil in olive.
Because the number and size of callose plugs is reduced, pollen tube staining in olive depended largely of the callose deposition on the pollen tube wall.
Olive pollen tubes only form four, rarely five, callose plugs, always in fixed pistils locations.
The pollen tubes could be distinguished from the fluorescent vascular bundles by their location and appearance.
An important trait of pollen tubes in olive was their lack of staining when pollen tube formation occurred several days before flower fixation.
This occurrence required a more frequent sampling to obtain reliable results, but did not impede neither pollen germination, pollen tube growth, and fertilization measurents nor analize the pollen tube-pistil interactions.

II International Symposium on Olive Growing

J. Cuevas, L. Rallo, H.F. Rapoport

Olive, pollen tube staining, aniline blue fluorescence

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1994.356.56