RESEARCH ARTICLE


Flower Bud Differentiation and Development of ‘Jinsi No.4’ Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) in Hunan Province of Southern China



Feng Zou1, Jinghua Duan2, Huan Xiong1, Deyi Yuan1, *, Lin Zhang1, Genhua Niu1, 3
1 The Key Laboratory of Cultivation and Protection for Non-wood Forest Trees, Ministry of Education, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, Hunan, 410004, P. R. China
2 Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, P.R. China
3 Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center at El Paso, Texas A&M University System, 1380 A&M Circle, El Paso, TX 79927, USA


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Creative Commons License
© 2017 Zou et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at The Key Laboratory of Cultivation and Protection for Non-wood Forest Trees, Ministry of Education, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, Hunan, 410004, P. R. China; Tel: +86 -073185623406; Fax: +86 -073185623406; E-mail: csuftyuanyi@126.com


Abstract

Ziziphus jujuba Mill. is one of the most important fruit crops and has been cultivated in China for more than 4000 years. Z. jujuba fruit is rich in nutritional and medicinal values. Compared to other wood fruits, Z. jujuba is unique in its flowering and fruiting characteristics. Floral buds differentiation and formation of Z. jujuba is an essential process that affects yield. Z. jujuba ‘Jinsi No.4’ blooms profusely, yet its final yield is low. In this study, the floral bud differentiation and development of ‘Jinsi No.4’ were examined by paraffin section. Results showed that the floral buds of ‘Jinsi No.4’ differentiated in the current year and started from early April. The duration of a single flower differentiation was short, taking only 7 days for maturation of flowers buds. Floral bud differentiation of ‘Jinsi No.4’ can be divided into six stages, i.e., pre-differentiation, initial differentiation, sepal differentiation, petal differentiation, stamen differentiation, and pistil differentiation. Flower development experienced seven stages, i.e., alabastrum, alabastrum break, sepal flattening, petal flattening, stamen flattening, filament withering, and ovule swelling. Dysplasia was observed in some floral organs in Z. jujuba ‘Jinsi No.4’, suggesting that the dysplasia of floral organs may be one of the main reasons for low yields. Our findings on flower bud development in ‘Jinsi No.4’ will contribute to its production and flowering management in Hunan area of southern China.

Keywords: Bud differentiation, Floral organ, fruit crop, Ziziphus jujuba ‘Jinsi No.4’.