Thin layer chromatography of W22 A R-r Pr Bz pollen extracts shows the main flavonol glycosides to be different from those found in seedlings, husks and other plant tissues. Some of these 'pollen-specific' flavonol glycosides may be based on isorhamnetin (quercetin 3' methyl ether), which was reported to be present in maize pollen by Wierman (Ber. Dtsch. Bot. Ges. 81:3, 1968). 'Plant-tissue-type' flavonol glycosides are also present in pollen, but only in secondary amounts. In W22 A R-r Pr bz pollen there are no plant-tissue-type flavonol glycosides and only trace amounts of the pollen-specific type. The bz pollen has traces of flavonol aglycones and several fluorescent compounds which seem to be either 5- or 7-glycosides, or perhaps both, based on either quercetin or isorhamnetin. These fluorescent compounds are present in even higher concentrations in bz anthers and are almost certainly responsible for the fluorescence of bz anthers and pollen under UV light. Further characterization of these compounds is in progress.

E. Derek Styles and Oldriska Ceska

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