MICROMORPHOLOGY OF POLLEN GRAINS FROM BISEXUAL AND FUNCTIONAL MALE FLOWERS OF POMEGRANATE

Modern taxonomy uses pollen grain morphology as an important tool due to itsspecific and diverse features. Pomegranate is an andromonoecious species havingtwo type flowers on the same plant, in other words, hermaphrodite flowers(bisexual) and male flowers (functional male flowers) that develop on the sameplant. The length of polar axis (P) and the equatorial diameter (E) as well as P/Eratio of pollen grains, collected from both bisexual and functionally male flowersof the cultivar ‘Caner I’, were analyzed using scaning electron microscopy (SEM).The length of polar axis (P), the equatorial diameter (E), and P/E ratio wascompared between the two grain. The sculpturing pattern of the exine of both typeflowers was striate, with more parallel longitudinal ridges Pollen from bothbisexual and functional male flower types is similar in size (≈21 μm). In contrast tothe divergent pistil development observed between bisexual and functional malepomegranate flowers, no differences in pollen morphology were detected. Thepollens had prolate shape (P\E=1.65 vs 1.59) in both types of flowers.