Abstract
Fuyu' and 'Jiro' Japanese persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.) are normally pistillate constant, producing only female flowers. However, shoots of individual trees of both cultivars were found bearing male flowers. When these shoots were top-worked on other stocks, the new shoots emerging from the scions yielded male flowers which produced viable pollen grains on an agar medium. There were no differences in starch gel electrophoretic patterns for glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), glucose phosphate isomerase (GPI), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), and phosphoglucomutase (PGM) between the leaves on the shoots with male flowers and leaves from the original source trees. The leaves, shoots, fruit and seeds derived from the top-grafted branches could not be morphologically distinguished from the other original trees. These results indicate that the shoots with male flowers are morphologically and enzymatically identical to 'Fuyu' and 'Jiro', except that the bud sports are staminate-sporadic.
