Eva Kronestedt

Sugar secretion from the nectary ofStrelitzia: an ultrastructural and physiological study

SummaryFlowers ofStrelitzia reginae grown at a constant 20°C have been shown to secrete nectar at a rate of up to 5.0 mg (d.w.) sugar h−1 (mean rate 1.2±0.1 mg h−1) for up to seven days. The nectar has a total concentration of about 25% during the early part of the secretory period but often falling to less than 10% towards the end of secretion.Each flower has three septal nectaries, the cuticle-lined ducts of which open into a nectar basin formed by the fused bases of two petals on the top of the receptacle. The layer of epithelial cells which secretes the sugars is thrown into highly convoluted folds and the distal parts of these cells have profuse wall inpushings. Both of these modifications have the effect of increasing the surface area of the plasmalemma apparently available for unloading the nectar. The glandular epithelium of the three, 26 mm long, nectaries of a single flower would be lined by more than 17×106 cells with a total plasmalemma surface area for unloading of at least 2,000 mm2. There is little evidence to suggest that secretion is a granulocrine process inStrelitzia. While there is abundant, stacked endoplasmic reticulum, and numerous vesicles containing fibrillar material, these do not appear to be directly concerned with sugar secretion. Data from specific flowers suggest that transmembrane fluxes in the range of 1.0×106 to 1.0×10−7 mol s−1 m−2 would be necessary to sustain the observed rates of secretion. While these are relatively high, when taken together with the structural information, they lead to the conclusion that secretion inStrelitzia is probably an eccrine process.

On the presence of plastids and the eyespot apparatus in a porfiromycin-bleached strain ofEuglena gracilis

SummaryUltrastructural studies were performed on a strain ofEuglena gracilis bleached with the antibiotic porfiromycin. A limited number of organelles could be identified as plastids by their possession of a double envelope and a stroma containing bunches of minute thylakoids, DNA-fibrils and ribosomes. A stigma was situated close to the reservoir. Opposite the stigma a paraflagellar body was observed in the main flagellum.

Structural studies of pollen tube growth in the pistil of Strelitzia reginae

SummaryFor this work we have used various microscopical methods (LM, SEM, and TEM) to study pollen tube growth and interaction with the transmitting tisse inStrelitzia reginae, which has an open style. By the use of SEM it was possible to trace the exact route of the pollen tubes in the ovary of this plant and demonstrate that they exclusively follow the outlines of the transmitting tissue. The average rate of pollen tube growth through the style was 1.8 mm h−1. The most significant effect of the pollination was a thickening of the distal wall of the subepithelial cells in the style. A secretion covers the stigma and the ovarian transmitting tissue and fills the stylar canal. This exudate contains lipids, polysaccharides, and proteins.