Debunga

Pendebungaan

Peredaran debunga dari organ jantan tumbuhan kepada pasangan betinanya dikenali sebagai pendebungaan. Proses ini dapat dilakukan sama ada melalui tiupan angin, di mana debunga yang terpilih cenderungnya ringan dan berkuantiti banyak, mahupun serangga, di mana debunga yang terambil cenderungnya berat, melekit dan kaya dengan protein.
Apabila sebutir zarah debunga diletakkan di atas stigma bunga dengan keadaan yang mengizinkan, butir debunga tersebut akan melepaskan tiub debunga yang menumbuh ke dalam tisu seakan struktur ovari melalui plasenta tumbuhan tersebut hinggalah ia sampai ke mikropil ovul. Sementara itu pula, nukleus generatif turut menyusul sambil ia membahagikan diri menjadi dua sel sperma yang akan tiba di destinasi mereka di hujung tiub yang terbina itu.

Debunga sebagai pembawa maklumat ekologi tumbuhan

A Russian theoretical biologist, Vigen Geodakyan (Geodakian), has suggested that the quantity of pollen reaching a pistillate flower can transmit ecological information and also regulate evolutionary plasticity in cross-pollinating plants. Plentiful pollen indicates optimum environmental conditions (for example a plant that is situated at the center of its natural range, in ideal growing conditions, with a large number of male plants nearby, and favorable weather conditions), whereas a small amount of pollen indicates extreme conditions (at the borders of its range, with a deficiency of male plants, and adverse weather conditions). Geodakian believes that the quantity of pollen reaching a pistillate flower defines the sex ratio, dispersion and sexual dimorphism of a plant population. High pollen quantity leads to a reduction of these characteristics and stabilization of a population. Small quantity leads to their increase and destabilization of a population.
Dependence of the secondary sex ratio on the amount of fertilizing pollen was confirmed on four dioecious plant species from three families — Rumex acetosa (Polygonaceae), Melandrium album (Cariophyllaceae), Cannabis sativa and Humulus japonicus (Cannabinaceae). (see summary of all these data in review article).
Dependence of offspring phenotype variety on amount of pollen was observed by Ter-Avanesyan in 1949. All three studied species of plants (cotton plant, black-eyed pea, and wheat) showed dependence in the direction forecast by the theory — fertilization with a small amount of pollen resulted in an increase in the diversity of the offspring. Ter-Avanesian writes that as a result of a limited pollination “instead of homogenous sorts we get populations”.

Debunga dalam rekod fosil

Pollen's sporopollenin outer sheath affords it some resistance to the rigours of the fossilisation process that destroy weaker objects; it is also produced in huge quantities. As such, there is an extensive fossil record of pollen grains, often disassociated from their parent plant. The discipline of palynology is devoted to the study of pollen, which can be used both for biostratigraphy and to gain information about the abundance and variety of plants alive — which can itself yield important information about paleoclimates.
Pollen is first found in the fossil record in the late Devonian period and increases in abundance until the present day.