Seed Setting as Influenced by Differences in Anther Dehiscence in Safflower

In an attempt to identify the specific floral mechanism responsible for differences in seed setting ability of safflower genotypes, it was found that a complete column of pollen as much length as that of anther tube emerged along with the elongating style in certain plants while in others a small cluster of pollen grains was released after the elongation of style and remained on the tip of anther tube. These two groups of plants termed complete anther dehiscence(CD)and partial anther dehiscence (PD) were tested for seed setting under selling, open pollination and hand pollination. Selfing had little effect on the number of seeds per capitulum in CD plants while it reduced the seed number by about half of that obtained under open pollination in PD plants. When PD plants were pollinated by hand the seed number was double that of open pollinated capitula. Outcrossing was highest to the extent of 77.4% in case of hand pollinated PD plant progenies. Thus, the differences in anthesr dehiscence have been found to be responsible for the observed variation for seed setting under identical conditions of environment particularly in respect of the activity of pollinators. The PD plant progenies bred true in the subsequent generation indicating the recessive gene control of the character.