SEED ABORTION IN NATURALLY POLLINATED FLOWERS OF MEXICAN NATIVE PLANTS OF Phaseolus coccineus L.

摘要

Phaseolus coccineus L. plants require insects or hummingbirds to pollinate their flowers and set pods. The number of pods that can be produced by a plant is set by the number of flowers while the number of seeds is set by the number of ovules within the flowers (Stephenson, 1981). The arrest of the development of the seed after its partial differentiation, -seed abortion-, also determines the number of seeds per plant. The objective of this work is to determine the percentage of seed abortion per plant of two Mexican native varieties of Phaseolus coccineus L.