Fig. 3.

Stages of flower development in date palm. Histological sections of female (A–D, I–L) and male (E–H, N–P) flowers. Stage I (A, E), Stage III (B, F), Stage IV (C, G), Stage V (D, H), Stage VI (I, M), Stage VII (J, N), Stage VIII (K, O), Stage IX (L, P). For description of each stage and the corresponding inflorescence size, see Table 1. Abbreviations: b, bract; C, carpel; fm, floral meristem; O, ovule; Ov, ovular meristem; P, petal; Pi, pistillode; St, stamen; st, staminode; S, sepal. Scale bars: (A, E) = 100 µm, (B–D, F–P) = 200 µm.