Abstract:

Forsythia suspensa is an important Chinese medicine plant, but its bearing rate is low naturally.In order to explore the reason of low capsule setting, the long and short style type of Forsythia suspensa were used for observing pollination and fertilization in self-pollination and cross-pollination by fluorescence microscopy and paraffin slice techniques. The results showed as follows: under the condition of self-pollination, a few of pollen tubes could enter the style canal in long and short style F. suspensa in 48 h after pollination, but no fertilized ovule was observed ultimately in the former and few of fertilized ovule existed in the latter. Under the condition of cross-pollination between the long and short style F. suspensa, the number of pollen tube was more and the growth was faster than that of self-pollination. The pollen tube growing into the ovule took about 168 h after pollination in the long style and about 120 h in the short one. It needed about 18 days to accomplish the fertilization in the both style type.

Key words: Forsythia suspensa, pollination, fertilization, pollen tube, pollen