Abstract: Embryogenesis, seed formation and the relationship between pollination and seeding rate were investigated by means of artificial pollination, X-ray analysis, routine paraffin-embedded sectioning technique and fluorescence assay. Pollen germinated two hours after artificial pollination and the peak germination rate reached by six hours. The stigma vitality lasted about thirty hr. The pollen tube grew into the stigma canal through the secretion between the stigma hairs, then passed the style canal, obturator and nucellar cap and finally reached the embryo sac where porogamy was conducted. Two weeks after artificial pollination, ab initio cellular endosperm was formed first as a narrow tissue of two to three cells in thickness, but six weeks later it filled the entire embryo sac, along with the disappearance of the nucellus. The spherical or cordate-like embryo appeared during the seventh to the eighth week. The cotyledon was formed during the fourteenth to the sixteenth week. By the twenty-second weeks the seed became matured, containing abundant endosperm, the seeding rate of an individual plant with natural pollination was less than 1%; after artificial pollination, however the highest seeding rate of an individual fruit could reach 39%, the average rate of nine fruits being 17.7%.

Key words: Liriodendron chinense (Hemsl.) Sarg., Artificial pollination, Embryogenesis, Seeding rate