Comparison and analyzation on the floral organ development and quality of three sweet cherry cultivars in Hangzhou and Tai’an areas

Abstract

In order to reveal the reasons for the low fruit setting rate of sweet cherry in Hangzhou area, taking three representative four-year-old sweet cherry cultivars with a certain fruit setting rate but instability and different chilling requirement in Hangzhou and Tai’an areas as the experimental materials, we studied and compared the development of female and male gametophytes, quality of floral organ and pollen in the same cultivar. The result revealed that there was a high proportion of empty pollen sac in the male gametophyte, which could result in less pollen quantity. In addition, the degradation and various abnormal types of male gametophyte led to its abortion. There was also a high proportion of ovule without embryo sac, which could cause female gametophyte abortion during the development of female gametophyte. The pollen quality was poorer in Hangzhou than in Tai’an. It is suggested that the abnormal development of male and female gametophytes could be the main reasons for very low fruit setting rate of sweet cherry in Hangzhou area.

Keywords

• sweet cherry
• floral organ
• development quality
• Hangzhou