Re: [nafex] self fertile pears?

In pears the flowers will produce both male and female parts that are viable - the mechanism is a type of self-incompatibility where the pollen germinates and grows about a third of the way down the style before the RNAs are degraded by enzymes in the style if they contain the same genetic allele as the pollen.  Sometimes this can be overcome by temperatures that allow pollen tube growth to occur more quickly and reach the ovules prior to degradation.  If you are consistently getting fruit set when none existed before then there really are only a couple of possible scenarios. 1. There is pollen from somewhere that you aren't aware of.  Honeybees will travel a long distance.  From my conversations with beekeepers here, I've been told that any pollen source within a radius of ~5 miles can allow pollination (obviously, closer is better).  2. Chimeral mutation (aka bud sport) on a limb somewhere that has allowed different alleles to be produced thereby providing compatible pollen on the same variety of tree.  This isn't completely unheard of but it is somewhat rare.
Michael Michael Dossett Mission, British Columbia www.Mdossettphoto.com phainopepla@yahoo.com

On Wednesday, October 12, 2016 6:33 PM, Jim Fruth <jimfruth@charter.net> wrote:

My pear flowers seem to have both pistle and stamens.

-----Original Message-----
From: Henry
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2016 8:17 AM
To: mailing list at ibiblio - Northamerican Allied Fruit Experimenters
Subject: Re: [nafex] self fertile pears?

The purpose of a plant seems to be to reproduce itself.

I have heard that some plants "get frustrated" after years of not producing
seed and "fix" the problem.

We are not allowed to grow the "sterile" forms of the invasive buckthorn
here in Minnesota because they tend to revert to seed production when they
get "old."

Some isolated "female" dioecious plants will grow a branch of "male" flowers
so as to be able to make viable seeds.

I don't know what the pears might be doing to pull this off.

--Henry Fieldseth

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