Embryological Investigation in Hibiscus sabdariffa × H. cannabinus and their Reciprocal Crosses

Abstract

PREVIOUS attempts to hybridize between the two commercially important fibre-yielding species of Hibiscus, namely, H. cannabinus L. (2n = 36) and H. sabdariffa L. (2n = 72) by different workers^1–4 have all resulted in the production of non-viable seeds only. These workers considered that the outlook for interspecific hybridization between these two species was not promising. However, in a recent study of pollen-tube growth in vivo in the crosses between these two species (cannabinus × sabdariffa and vice versa), I recorded a reciprocal receptivity of pollen germination and growth in the stylar region, indicating that no stylar incompatibility is involved in those crosses⁵.