African Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. 4 (8), pp. 713-717, August, 2009 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJAR ISSN 1991-637X © 2009 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Occurrence of star flowers in Cardinal (Vitis vinifera L.) cv. Z. Gökbayrak 1* , A. Dardeniz 1 , G. Söylemezolu 2 and S. Kızılcık 1 1 Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Horticulture, 17020 Çanakkale-Turkey. 2 Ankara University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Horticulture, 06110 Ankara-Turkey. Accepted 9 July, 2009 Star flowers are flowers that differ from normal Vitis flowers in that the calyptra breaks open from the top like the flowers of most other species plants. This is the first report of the occurrence of star flowers in Turkey. Star flowers were observed in Cardinal (Vitis vinifera L.). The structural features are compared to normal flowers. A genetic analysis using RAPD-PCR was performed to determine if there was a genetic difference between the vines nearing two flower types. There were some minor morphological differences, but RAPD analysis did not show any genetic dissimilarities. Inflorescences appeared more compact on star flowered vines due to shorter pedicels in flowers. Fruit set was also extremely low. This formation is reported in different regions of the world on different cultivars. This might be more common that previously thought. It warrants further research. Key words: Grape, star flower, genetic analysis, RAPD, cardinal. INTRODUCTION A perfect grape flower is the flower with all parts (calyx, corolla, stamens and pistil) present. Perianth–the floral envelope is usually divisible into an outer whorl (calyx) of sepals and an inner whorl of five petals (corolla), also known as calyptra. These petals are fused at the tip; hence the vine flower does not open from the tip, as is the rule with most flowers (Winkler et al., 1974; Aaolu, 1999). During flowering, some abnormalities in the way of opening of vine flowers have been encountered. This abnormality, casually named as ‘star flower formation’ differs from normal Vitis flowers because the calyptra opens from the top in star formation. Star flowers more closely resemble flowers of the genus Cissus (Longbottom et al., 2004). Star flowers have been asso- ciated with male sterility and poor fruit set (Portele, 1883; Despeissis, 1921; Kozma, 1960; Aaolu, 1969; Pratt, 1971). Quieiroz-Voltan et al. (1998) reported a structural abnormality in the flowers of Italia (V. vinifera L.) cultivar, including the opening of the flowers from the top. Reports about star flower formation in Australia came from *Corresponding author. E-mail: zelihayasa@gmail.com. Tel.: +90 286 2180018-1309, Fax: +90 286 2180545. Longbottom et al. (2004, 2008) in the cultivars V. vinifera x Vitis labrusca cv. Canada Muscat, V. vinifera cvs. Gamay, Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay, and Shiraz. In addition, star flower variants were observed by Longbottom et al. (2004) on own-rooted Merlot (clone D3V14) and Cabernet Sauvignon (clone G9V3) vines. This paper describes the morphological studies on normal and star flower variant Cardinal (V. vinifera L.) vines and genetic analysis using RAPD-PCR to determine possible morphological and genetic differences. MATERIALS AND METHODS Cardinal vines with star flowers described in this paper were grown in the Experimental vineyard at the Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University’s Yahya Çavu Campus at Çanakkale, Turkey and were discovered by a casual observation during the vegetative season of 2006. The 0.45 ha vineyard was founded as a collection parcel in 1997. The normal and star flowered Cardinal vines were grafted onto 41B rootstock and trained to bilateral cordon system. Morphological studies on flower inflorescences and clusters of both normal and star flowered vines were carried out according to the IPGRI, UPOV, OIV (1997) for two successive years. There were only two star flowered vines in the vineyard carrying two-three inflorescences and therefore clusters in total. Five normal flowered vines were also observed for the morphological study. Genetic analysis was performed in the Agricultural Biotechnology Labora- tory at Department of Horticulture, Ankara University. As a source