Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Pollen Development in
Annona cherimola mill.
the Evolution of Aggregated
pollen
Jorge Lora, Pilar S. Testillano, Maria C. Risueño,
Jose I. Hormaza and Maria Herrero
abstRact
Background
In most flowering plants, pollen is dispersed as monads. However, aggregat-
ed pollen shedding in groups of four or more pollen grains has arisen inde-
pendently several times during angiosperm evolution. The reasons behind this
phenomenon are largely unknown. In this study, we followed pollen develop-
ment in Annona cherimola, a basal angiosperm species that releases pollen in
