Summary
The newly formed vegetative cell of the pollen grain of the African blood lily has a spheroidal nucleus, few dictyosomes, and a small amount of endoplasmic reticulum. Plastids are smaller than those of the microspore and usually lack starch granules. Mitochondria and lipid bodies are more numerous than they were in the microspores, but their appearance is unchanged. As the pollen grain matures, the vegetative nucleus becomes irregular in shape. There is a dramatic increase in the number of dictyosomes, starch accumulates in the plastids, and a moderately well developed system of endoplasmic reticulum appears in the form of flat cisternae. In the developmental period immediately preceding anthesis, the vegetative nucleus becomes lobate and small nucleoli replace the large nucleoli present earlier. Plastids lose their starch, lipid bodies disappear, and the endoplasmic reticulum becomes vesicular in this final stage before germination.
- Received June 29, 1970.
- Copyright © 1971 The Company of Biologists Ltd.
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