Morphological characterization of germplasm accessions of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.)

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted at Research cum Instructional farm of Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, Chhattisgarh during rabi, 2019-20. The experimental material included 108 germplasm accessions and 4 checks (A-1, PBNS-12, CG Kusum-1 and IGKV Kusum) obtained from Germplasm Maintenance Unit (GMU), Indian Institute of Oilseed Research (IIOR), Hyderabad. In the experiment, the selected germplasm accessions were evaluated for 26 morphological characters in an augmented design to determine distinctiveness among the accessions. Observations were recorded at different growth stages of based on the DUS descriptors forsafflower assuggested by IIOR, Hyderabad. First leaf: length of blade, first leaf:width of blade, petal: colour, petal: change in colour (faded stage), leaf: width of blade, leaf:shape, capitulum: width of outer involucral bract of maincapitula (cm), capitulum: ratio length/width of outer involucral bract of main capitulum (cm), capitulum: number of spines on outer involucral bract of main capitulum, capitulum: diameter of main capitula (cm), plant: length oflongest primary branch (cm), seed: hull content (%) were exhibited highest variation among the germplasm accessions. Genotypes which were unique for a particular character can be used as reference varieties in furtherDUS characterization experiments.