Aluka - Entry for Tylosema esculentum [family FABACEAE]

Aluka - Entry for Tylosema esculentum [family FABACEAE]

The Succulent Flora of Angola

BioOne Online Journals - The Succulent Flora of Angola

Plants for Use in a traditional African-American Yard in Miami-Dade County: Vegetable Crops Including a Selection of Those Grown in Africa

Plants for Use in a traditional African-American Yard in Miami-Dade County: Vegetable Crops Including a Selection of Those Grown in Africa African Garden vegetable and fruit

Functional Heterostyly in Tylosema esculentum (Caesalpinioideae)

T. esculentum is heterostylous with the pistil and anthers exhibiting reciprocal heights in the two morphs, although pollen size and sculpturing do not vary. The wet, non-papillate stigma characteristic of the species is the first to be reported in the Caesalpinioideae. A diallelic self-incompatability system exists in T. esculentum. The major site of pollen tube inhibition in the intramorph crosses is found in the style. This is the first functional heterostyly in the Fabaceae and of a confirmed self-incompatibility system in the Caesalpinioideae. Three separate lines of evidence, the monitoring of fruit development in open-pollinated plants, fruit set in diallel crossing experiments, and observations made in wild populations, demonstrated that fruit set and, by implication,seed set, are very low in this species. Floral abscission was a major limitation to the production of mature pods but there were also significant losses at other developmental stages of fruit production. The results suggest that low seed set may be an adaptation of the species to an environment in which rainfall is scarce.