Up to date, early flower development and the fundamental changes accompanying preand post‐fertilization in Cucurbitaceae (watermelon, melon, zucchini, cucumber….) have not been sufficiently described at the morphological level. Some varieties of Cucurbitaceae recently emerged as commercial trade, are generating a great success because of their high quality (they are very sweet), and their great agronomic value (large size, resistance to diseases, high yield, harvesting time...). Production of these fruits in the greenhouse requires the plants to be pollinated effectively. Bees and bumblebees are introduced artificially in greenhouses and usually carry out this duty. However, the efficiency of the process is not very high at present and farmers need it to be improved. This requires detailed knowledge of how pollen production takes place, how and when the female flowers reach their receptivity, and whether pollen is viable and can or cannot germinate as well as many other details of fertilization. The main aim of this work was to characterize the morphological stages of floral development in two plant models: watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) and zucchini (Cucurbita pepo), by analyzing some structural aspects of their flowers in detail.

This work was supported by FEDER funds: The project MEyC BFU2011‐22779 and from “proyectos de excelencia”: (JA) P2010‐AGR6274, P2010‐CVI5767 and P2011‐CVI‐7487.

Proceedings of the I Congress PIIISA celebrado en la Estación Experimental del Zaidín, Granada, el 26 de abril de 2012.

Peer reviewed