Stamen Number and Variation in Diploid and Tetraploid Cherries

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Abstract
Stamen numbers were counted on flowers from a collection of cherries, sweet cultivated varieties of Prunus avixan and P. cerasus. The most frequent numbers were 34 and 39–40, no doubt representing seven and eight times the petal number. The character is apparently genetically controlled, clones being highly uniform within themselves but differing from others. On the average, flowers of tetraploid Morellos (P. cerasus) had lower numbers than diploid sweet cherries (P. avium), while tetraploid Dukes were intermediate; this accords with the suspected hybrid origin of the Dukes. Stamen number and variation was not associated with economic characters, but there was a tendency for varieties in more frequent incompatibility groups I–VI to have lower values than groups VII–XII.