Floral structures, flowering and controlled pollination techniques in guaraná

Abstract

The natural pollination of the guaraná (Paullinia cupana), a monoecious, allogamous species, is performed by insects, mainly by bees. The flowering of both sexes in different branches in a single plant occurs the same day. Consequently the occurrence of considerable natural self pollinations is probable. The flowers start opening from two o'clock untill approximately 4:30 o'clock in the morning. The male flowers show pollen in the anthers before sunrise. The anthesis takes about a nine-hour period to be performed. By the pollination techniques developed, it was possible to obtain an average of 24 fruits and 26 seeds per isolation bag, with a maximum of 150 seeds, depending on the number of inflorescences isolated per bag. With an average of 60 isolation bags, it is possible to obtain as many as 900 seeds per plant.