The angiosperm female gametophyte is critical for plant reproduction. It contains the egg cell and central cell that become fertilized and gives rise to the embryo and endosperm of the seed, respectively. Female gametophyte development begins early in ovule development with the formation of a diploid megaspore mother cell that …

In 1898, Nemec noted that in the petaloid anthers of Hyacinthus orientalis, the pollen grains sometimes form large eight-nucleate structures showing a surprising resemblance to embryo sacs. He believed that they arose as the result of a degeneration of the generative nucleus and three divisions of the vegetative nucleus of …

Among early students of the development of pollen, Hofmeister (1848) presented some surprisingly good illustrations of the process of tetrad formation (microspore tetrad), and Reichenbach, Hartig and several other workers noted the presence of two nuclei in whole mounts of the mature pollen grains of several angiosperms. Discovery of nature …