Floral development in bolting garlic

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is a completely sterile plant, propagated only v egetatively. The aim of this research was to study the sequence of morpholo gical processes occurring during floral initiation and development of a num ber of bolting garlic accessions from the Allium gene bank in Israel by usi ng SEM. The garlic inflorescence is an umbel-like flower arrangement, the b ranches (flower clusters) of which arise from a common meristem. The numero us flowers have a distinct morphology typical of the genus Allium. Flower-s talk elongation precedes the swelling of the apical meristem and its subdiv ision into several centers of floral development. Within clusters, floral p rimordia develop unevenly. Differentiation of topsets begins after floral d ifferentiation on the peripheral part of the apical surface, and their size , number and rate of development vary among genotypes. At least four morpho logical types differing in flower/topset ratio were distinguished among the 12 clones studied in this investigation. For further studies of flowering physiology and fertility restoration, only clones which can differentiate t he greatest proportion of normal flowers and the least of topsets in the ap ical meristem should be selected.