The Morphogenesis of Double Flowering in Petunia hybrida Hort.1

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Abstract
The shoot apical meristem of the seedling and mature vegetative petunia exhibit no morphological differences in relation to double versus single floral genotypes. The vegetative meristem possesses a biseriate tunica and a radially patterned corpus. The flower of the petunia develops directly from the apical meristem. The succession of flowers is accomplished by the lateral development of another meristem from the flank of the central meristem. All floral appendages in the single flowered genotype dd are initiated acropetally. The petal and stamen primordia arise from a circular initial centripetal and adjacent to the sepal primordia. The floral initiation of the double flowering genotype D– differs from the single with an intense and random initiation of additional primordia over the surface of the receptacle. Differentiation of these primordia into petals or stamens appears to be determined by their position on the receptacle. The proliferation of petals and anthers caused by D results in a restriction of carpel and placental development, and hence, a malformed, nonfunctional pistil is usually produced. With the presence of the D allele, double flowers are always produced but the degree of doubleness appears to be a factor of gene dosage.

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