BACKGROUND: Many plants, including those commonly found in the Fagaceae family, produce more flowers and ovules than mature fruits and seeds. In Castanea henryi, an ovary contains 16-24 ovules, but only one develops into a seed. The other ovules abort or otherwise fail to fully develop, but the reason for this is unknown. Such a strict reproductive screening mechanism is rare in plants. METHODS: In this study, controlled pollination scheme were adopted, and conventional paraffin embedding and semi-thin sectioning techniques, followed by microscopy, were used for cytological studies of ovule de...
