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Image Title: Pollen Germination and Tube Growth in the Snow Buttercup, Ranunculus adoneus
Image Credit: Candace Galen, University of Missouri
AJB Editor: Karl Niklas, Cornell University
Intended End User: Teacher, Student
License Details: BSA - Terms for Image Use
Copyright held by: BSA,
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About the Image

Pollen germination and tube growth in the snow buttercup, Ranunculus adoneus, photographed under fluorescence microscopy. Snow buttercup flowers exhibit heliotropism, the capacity to track the sun's rays over the course of the day. The adaptive significance of solar tracking in snow buttercups is mediated through the impact of flower heliotropism on paternal and maternal floral environments. In controlled crosses, pollen from solar-tracking flowers has higher germination success than pollen from experimentally restrained flowers. Solar tracking in recipient flowers also enhances pollen germination and increases pollen tube to ovule ratios.

Link to the AJB Abstract for the article:

Sunny-side up: flower heliotropism as a source of parental environmental effects on pollen quality and performance in the snow buttercup, Ranunculus adoneus (Ranunculaceae)

National Science Foundation  Development Supported by the National Science Foundation