Pollination in conifers

• Published in: Trends in Plant Science Vol. 3; no. 12; pp. 479 - 485
• Main Authors: Owens, John N, Takaso, Tokushiro, Runions, C.John
• Format: Book Review Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.12.1998; Elsevier
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Biological and medical sciences; conifers; Economic plant physiology; evolution; Flowering, floral biology, reproduction patterns; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Growth and development; Plant physiology and development; pollen; pollination; pollination drop; pollination mechanisms; Sexual reproduction; Vegetative and sexual reproduction, floral biology, fructification; conifers; pollination mechanisms; evolution; pollination drop; pollen; pollination; Wind; Seed production; Morphology; Gymnospermae; Spermatophyta; Coniferales; Pollen; Review; Plant reproductive apparatus; Sexual reproduction; Pollination efficiency; Pollination
• ISSN: 1360-1385; 1878-4372
• DOI: 10.1016/S1360-1385(98)01337-5

Our understanding of pollination in conifers has advanced rapidly in recent years, but it still lags behind our knowledge of this process in angiosperms. In part this is because conifers are not considered to be high priority crops and, unlike many cultivated flowers, conifer seed cones are generally neither large nor colorful. The use of genetics to improve tree growth has primarily been through selection and asexual propagation rather than breeding, and because incompatibility is not thought to occur in conifer pollination systems, concern about pollination has primarily been with regard to seed production. Here we examine the ancestral wind-pollination mechanism in conifers and discuss how the process may have evolved to improve pollination success.