<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Lily pollen causes many problems affecting humans’ quality of life and health, such as clothing contamination and skin or nasal allergies. The manual removal of anthers is time-consuming and labour-intensive, and thus, not conducive to commercial production. It is of great importance to produce pollen-free lily varieties with beautiful shapes. In this study, we studied the morphological characteristics of flower organs and polyploids of six pollen-free filial generations of four lily species and their micropropagations. Lily ‘5-21’ is male sterile and produces uncrackable anthers with inactive pollens under natural conditions. Lily ‘3-12’ is unable to produce anthers, because the petals become stamens, thereby leading to infertility. Lilies ‘3-1’, ‘5-4’, ‘5-35’ and ‘0-0.2’ are unable to produce anthers, because they lack floral organs. Polyploids of six hybrid lilies were identified by flow cytometry and chromosome counting, and the results showed that lily ‘5-4’ was triploid and the rest were diploid. Morphological observation indicated that flowering periods were from early July to early August and lasted for about 11 days. Six male sterile lilies had low seed setting rates when they were used as female parents. Most of the seeds were flaky with developed embryos. Therefore, asexual reproduction is optimal for these six male sterile lilies. The male sterility of six lilies was associated with their parents’ pollen activity. Scales of ‘5-4’ and ‘5-35’ were used as explants for <italic>in vitro</italic> micropropagation. The findings of the present study lay a foundation for breeding of pollen-free lilies.</p>
</abstract>

Lily pollen causes many problems affecting humans’ quality of life and health, such as clothing contamination and skin or nasal allergies. The manual removal of anthers is time-consuming and labour-intensive, and thus, not conducive to commercial production. It is of great importance to produce pollen-free lily varieties with beautiful shapes. In this study, we studied the morphological characteristics of flower organs and polyploids of six pollen-free filial generations of four lily species and their micropropagations. Lily ‘5-21’ is male sterile and produces uncrackable anthers with inactive pollens under natural conditions. Lily ‘3-12’ is unable to produce anthers, because the petals become stamens, thereby leading to infertility. Lilies ‘3-1’, ‘5-4’, ‘5-35’ and ‘0-0.2’ are unable to produce anthers, because they lack floral organs. Polyploids of six hybrid lilies were identified by flow cytometry and chromosome counting, and the results showed that lily ‘5-4’ was triploid and the rest were diploid. Morphological observation indicated that flowering periods were from early July to early August and lasted for about 11 days. Six male sterile lilies had low seed setting rates when they were used as female parents. Most of the seeds were flaky with developed embryos. Therefore, asexual reproduction is optimal for these six male sterile lilies. The male sterility of six lilies was associated with their parents’ pollen activity. Scales of ‘5-4’ and ‘5-35’ were used as explants for in vitro micropropagation. The findings of the present study lay a foundation for breeding of pollen-free lilies.

Morphological characteristics of flower organs and <italic>in vitro</italic> micropropagation of male sterile lines of <italic>Lilium</italic> hybrids

Folia Horticulturae

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Morphological characteristics of flower organs and  micropropagation of male sterile lines of  hybrids

Lily pollen causes many problems affecting humans’ quality of life and health, such as clothing contamination and skin or nasal allergies. The manual removal...

Morphological characteristics of flower organs and in vitro micropropagation of male sterile lines of Lilium hybrids

Article Category: ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Published Online: Jun 26, 2023

Page range: 1 - 23

Received: Sep 24, 2022

Accepted: Dec 12, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/fhort-2023-0001

Keywords
male sterility, micropropagation, morphological characteristics, pollen-free lily

© 2023 Lei Cao et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Morphological characteristics of flower organs and in vitro micropropagation of male sterile lines of Lilium hybrids

Article Category: ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Published Online: Jun 26, 2023

Page range: 1 - 23

Received: Sep 24, 2022

Accepted: Dec 12, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/fhort-2023-0001

Keywordsmale sterility, micropropagation, morphological characteristics, pollen-free lily

© 2023 Lei Cao et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
male sterility, micropropagation, morphological characteristics, pollen-free lily