Scanning electron microscopy study of pollen morphology of five sour cherry cultivars

Abstract

Pollen morphology can be used for identification of species and cultivars of fruit trees including sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L). In this study, pollen morphology and ultrastructure of five cultivars of sour cherry ('Heimanns Konservenweichsel', 'Keleriis 14', 'Rexelle', 'Sumadinka', and 'Oblacinska') were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) during two years (2011-2012). The characteristics studied were pollen size and shape (length, width, and length/width ratio), length of the colpus, width of the mesocolpium, and exine characteristics (number of ridges per an area of 100 mu m(2), width of the ridge, and width of the furrow). All cultivars had tricolpate pollen grains and striate exine ornamentation, but significant differences in some traits were found between cultivars. Pollen grains ranged from 48.0 to 52.9 mu m in size. 'Sumadinka' had perprolate shape of the pollen and the other four cultivars had prolate shape of the pollen. The number of ridges 100 mu m(-2) of the exine surface ranged from 16.5 ('Oblacinska') to 21.6 ('Keleriis 14'). Ridge and furrow width ranged from 0.32 to 0.42 mu m, and from 0.29 to 0.50 mu m, respectively. Some of the pollen morphological parameters analysed, such as shape and size, and exine characteristics could be used for identification of sour cherry cultivars.