Male Sterility /CMS

General Discussions
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41

The Belstar F1 anthers look shriveled to me: almost non-existent. Typical of CMS.

Normal brassica anthers look like this:

brassica-normal-anthers
brassica-normal-anthers1848×1732 257 KB

Photo Credit: Adam Weston

42

That’s odd; three OP broccoli varieties that are currently flowering in my garden look more like the picture of the hybrid than like the one you posted. (That’s why I thought that the hybrid looked normal in comparison; this is the first year that I’ve paid much attention to brassica flowers.) Could there be some environmental influence that is causing this?

There is a fuzzy anther on each filament in the various flowers, but they are definitely much smaller than the ones in your picture.

43

Bi

biology is fuzzy. All sorts of environmental and genetic factors influence how something looks.

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44

That’s true. I have noticed that the hollyhocks in my yard (which are unwatered) have smaller flowers that look somewhat shriveled. The hollyhocks my neighbors grow (which are watered) have big flowers that are lustrous and shiny. Mine aren’t as pretty, but they survive and make seeds, so I’m cool with it.

I wouldn’t be surprised if flowers looking smaller and a bit shriveled is a common response to drought stress. If so, I wouldn’t worry about it in the least, as long as they’re surviving and making seeds.

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45

@Joseph_Lofthouse and @UnicornEmily since something in my environment seems to be leading to unusual anther shapes right now, is there any other way to tell if that hybrid is CMS or not? They’d probably set seeds if I let them simply because of all the other pollen flying around, so that wouldn’t be a good test.

46

Commercially available brassica hybrids use Cytoplasmic Male Sterility.

Small scale growers could use self-incompatibility to make hybrids, but it doesn’t scale inexpensively.

47

Maybe blossom bag a few flowers on another brassica plant before they open, manually transfer pollen over to them once they’re open, and blossom bag them again? If the flowers in the bag set pods, you’ll know the pollen was fertile, and if they don’t, you can strongly suspect it isn’t?

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48

With a good magnifying glass, you could examine the anthers for pollen. Might see pollen with unaided eyes if you collect it on a black surface.

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49

Sounds like a quick and easy way to test would be to grab a piece of black cloth or black paper and wipe it across a bunch of flowers, then.