2012 Volume 11 Issue 3 Pages 321-325
Prunus × yedoensis ‘Somei-yoshino’, one of the most famous flowering cherry cultivars in Japan, is self-incompatible. To determine how self-incompatibility and a compatible difference among crossing families occurred, we performed artificial pollination and measured the pollen tube growth and characteristics of the fruit set in ‘Somei-yoshino’. With the self-pollinated treatment, the pollen tube that germinated on the stigma never reached the bottom of the style, even by 10 days after pollination. Hence, the self-incompatibility in ‘Somei-yoshino’ is a result of the arrest of self pollen tube growth in the style. All self-pollinated fruit dropped within 20 days after pollination. In contrast, pollen tube growth to the bottom of the style was observed in almost all of the styles pollinated with inter-specific outcross pollen until 3 days after pollination. There were no differences among the crossing families in pollen tube growth within 10 days after pollination. The compatible differences in families were realized in the fruit set rate around 20 days after pollination. Subsequently, only small fruit dropped until maturation, and most fruit matured within 50 days after pollination, in early June.
