Studies on floral biology of Malva sylvestris L.

Abstract

Malva sylvestris is a perennial herbaceous plant with hermaphrodite flowers. Its floral morphology revealed that under Delhi conditions its period of flowering ranges from 1st week of March to end of April end under Delhi conditions. It possesses 20-35 branches with 50-75 flowers per branch emerging from leaf axils on each node. Natural pollen transfer in the species is efficient and fruit set following open-pollination is quite high. Stigma is overlapped by stamens and anthers. At receptivity style protrudes out and forms umbrella-like structure over anthers. At anthesis, pollen viability was recorded highest (95.71%) but started declining as day progressed. The curvature of style branches in M. sylvestris eventually brings some un-pollinated stigmas down to touch unshed pollen, potentially resulting in delayed selfing. Due to this mechanism extended selfing in a flower was found to coexist in nature with cross-pollination. Selfing was also promoted by geitonogamous mode and delayed selfing occurred when pollinators are scarce. Seed setting were also affected by the breeding system and maximum seed set was observed when the flowers were emasculated and hand pollinated.