Pollen morphology of Solanurn L. section Solanum

J. M. EDMONDS, 1984. Pollen morphology of Solanum L. section Solnnum . The pollen morphology of both dried and fresh, fixed material was examined using SEM. The work confirmed thc spheroidal to sub-prolate shape, the tricolporate nature and the granular surface sculpturing, typical of Solanurn pollen, but failed to demonstrate the occurrence of exine patterns which could bc of practical taxonomic use is differentiating the species belonging to the section Solanurn . Quantification of the exine sculpturing, by means of granule density counts, indicated a possible relationship between this feature and the morpho-genetic diversity of certain species.     

Carbon trading for phosphorus gain: the balance between rhizosphere carboxylates and arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis in plant phosphorus acquisition

Two key plant adaptations for phosphorus (P) acquisition are carboxylate exudation into the rhizosphere and mycorrhizal symbioses. These target different soil P resources, presumably with different plant carbon costs. We examined the effect of inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on amount of rhizosphere carboxylates and plant P uptake for 10 species of low‐P adapted Kennedia grown for 23 weeks in low‐P sand. Inoculation decreased carboxylates in some species (up to 50%), decreased plant dry weight (21%) and increased plant P content (23%). There was a positive logarithmic relationship between plant P content and the amount of rhizosphere citric acid for inoculated and uninoculated plants. Causality was indicated by experiments using sand where little citric acid was lost from the soil solution over 2 h and citric acid at low concentrations desorbed P into the soil solution. Senesced leaf P concentration was often low and P‐resorption efficiencies reached >90%. In conclusion, we propose that mycorrhizally mediated resource partitioning occurred because inoculation reduced rhizosphere carboxylates, but increased plant P uptake. Hence, presumably, the proportion of plant P acquired from strongly sorbed sources decreased with inoculation, while the proportion from labile inorganic P increased. Implications for plant fitness under field conditions now require investigation.