ABSTRACT
Wild grapevines (Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris and Vitis sp.) are generally dioecious plants, requiring cross-pollination for fertilization and fruit set. However, its unisexual fl owers often contain rudimentary parts of the opposite sex and wild Vitis individuals with functionally complete hermaphrodite fl owers have been occasionally found in the native habitat. This dysfunctional partial hermaphroditism may represent a relictal trait from very ancient primitive monoecious forms of Vitis from Tertiary times (Meneghetti et al. 2006) that was shifted to unisexual fl owers promoting sexual recombination during evolution of the wild species. In contrast to the wild grapes, the cultivated European grapevine varieties (V. vinifera ssp. vinifera) generally have functionally perfect hermaphrodite fl owers. Failure in one of the two organs (male or female) may occur (cf. OIV descriptor 151, https://news.reseau-concept.net/images/oiv_uk/Client/Code_descripteurs_2ed_ EN.pdf), as described for the V. vinifera variety “Picolit giallo”, in which problems with pollen germination were detected (Lombardo et al. 1976). Most likely hermaphroditism was secondarily re-established due to selective forces imposed during six-to eight thousand years of viticultural domestication.
