From spiderhunters@yahoo.com Sun Sep 12 20:05:37 2004
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2004 12:45:50 -0700
From: Vivek Tiwari 
To: nathistory-india@Princeton.EDU
Subject: Fwd: Botany: A new self-pollination mechanism

Nature 431, 39 - 40 (02 September 2004);
doi:10.1038/431039b

Botany: A new self-pollination mechanism

YINGQIANG WANG*^Ć, DIANXIANG ZHANG*, SUSANNE S. RENNER^Ç
& ZHONGYI CHEN*

* South China Botanical Garden, The Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China
^Ć Zhongkai Agrotechnical College, Guangzhou 510225,
China
3 Department of Biology, Ludwig Maximilians
University, 80638 Munich, Germany


dx-zhang@scib.ac.cn




Pollen grains from most flowering plants are
transported by wind or animals and deposited on the
receptive surface of the stigma of a different
individual, but self-pollination is also common. We
have discovered a new process for self-pollination in
the laterally orientated flowers of a Chinese herb, in
which a film of pollen is transported from the anther
(pollen sacs) by an oily emulsion that slides sideways
along the flower's style and into the individual's own
stigma. This mode of self-pollination is a new
addition to the broad range of genetic and
morphological mechanisms that have evolved in
flowering plants (angiosperms), and may be common in
species growing in shady, windless and insect-poor
habitats.

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