BREEDING SYSTEMS IN SOME REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GENUS LYCIUM (SOLANACEAE)

The development of the ovule and the embryo, sac of five of the 17 spe cies of Lycium and of one hybrid, recorded for southern Africa, was in vestigated. All specimens of four of the species and the hybrid (betwe en a hermaphroditic and a functionally dioecious species) were found t o be functionally dioecious: they express only one sex, although both male and female organs are present in the same flower. One species was hermaphroditic. The embryo sacs of all species, and of the hybrid, we re of the normal eight-nucleate Polygonum type. The structure of the o vary and the development of the embryo sac are similar to those of L. europaeum L. The absence of unreduced embryo sacs indicates that apomi xis does not occur at any ploidy level in the species studied.