Xenia

Plant Characteristics

Cultivation

Scientific Names

Read about Xenia in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Xenia. When sweet corn is fertilized by pollen from a starchy variety, the grains which result from this union become smooth and hard because packed with starch. In like manner the pollen of a purple-seeded variety like the Black Mexican sweet corn, produces purple seeds on ears which would otherwise have white or yellow seeds, and pollen from a yellow-seeded variety produces yellow seeds on the ears of a white-seeded variety. Such direct effects of the pollen are known as xenia (Focke, 1881). While the phenomenon is best known in Indian corn, it has been demonstrated recently also in rye (von Rumker), in which a green-seeded variety bears yellow seeds if pollinated by a yellow-seeded variety. In both maize and rye, the xenia characters affect only the endosperm (albumen) of the seeds, while characters of the seed-coat show no xenia. The correct interpretation of xenia in maize was given by de Vries (1899) and Correns (1899), and almost simultaneously by Webber (1900). This explanation is briefly as follows: The pollen-tube contains two male nuclei, one of which fertilizes the egg, while the other unites with certain other nuclei of the embryo-sac to form the endosperm-nucleus from which the whole of the endosperm is developed. The direct effect of the pollen on endosperm characters is due to this participation of one of the male nuclei in the production of the endosperm. A slightly different phenomenon is seen in peas, in which pollen from a yellow-seeded variety produces yellow seeds in the pods of a green-seeded variety, for here the xenia character resides not in the endosperm, but in the embryo itself. Physiological effects of pollen in causing local disturbances of nutritive or other functions in tissues surrounding the style or ovary, thus affecting the size and quality of the fruits, are not properly included under xenia. Many reported cases of xenia in plants other than those here mentioned are undoubtedly mythical and will not stand the test of careful experimental investigation. The deterioration of melons supposedly caused by growing in the proximity of pumpkins or cucumbers, is doubtless a case of this kind. The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

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