Inheritance of exine ornamentation and pollen shape in the interspecific tetraploid hybrids of Gloriosa

Scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy of the pollen of three tetraploid (2n = 44) species, Gloriosa virescens Lindle, G. carsonii Baker, and G. richmondensis Hort., and three of their hybrids showed that the pollen in Gloriosa L. fundamentally consists of three pollen shape types, spheroidal, ellipsoidal, and spindle shaped, having monocolpate aperture and a striate exine ornamentation pattern. The three parental species can be differentiated from each other on the basis of pollen shape and their characteristic striate exine ornamentation. However, in all three hybrids the composition of pollen shape suggests maternal inheritance of the character. Furthermore, in each of the three hybrids, new exine ornamentation features have appeared which differ from those of the other hybrids and from their respective parents. All the pollen grains in each of the hybrids are uniform with the same characteristic exine ornamentation. They show no segregation of exine features into the parental categories, wh...