Variability and associations in morpho-physiological traits and seed yield and oil content in Pongamia pinnata L. Pierre
114 / 30
Authors
-
R.P.S. Deswal
CCS HAU Regional Research Station, Bawal-123 501. Haryana, India
-
N. Kaushik
CCS HAU Regional Research Station, Bawal-123 501. Haryana, India
-
N.S. Panwar
NBPGR, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, India
-
Laxmi Rawat
Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun-248 006. U.K., India
-
K.S. Bangarwa
Department of Forestry, CCSHAU, Hisar-125 004. Haryana, India
Keywords:
Agro-climatic zone, character association, oil content, Pongamia pinnata, variabilityAbstract
The experimental material comprised of 50 selected trees (ten trees from each agro-climatic zone) of Pongamia pinnata from five agro-climatic zones located in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. The mature and ripened pods from selected trees were collected for two consecutive years 2009 and 2010 and observations on morphological traits namely pod length (mm), pod breadth (mm), pod thickness (mm), seed weight/pod (g), 100-pod weight (g), number of seeds/100 pods, seed length (mm), seed breadth (mm), seed thickness (mm) and 100-seed weight were recorded. The observations on the physiological traits viz., seed oil content, electrical conductivity of seed leachate, seed germination, seedling length, seedling dry weight and seedling vigor were also recorded. Wide range of variability was observed in pod and seed morphology. Pods collected from RJ-7 agro-climatic zone recorded highest value for pod length (53.57 mm), pod breadth (25.40 mm), pod thickness (10.60mm), 100-pod weight (339.48 g) and seed weight per pod (1.57 g). Similarly significant variability was observed for seed characters (100-seed weight, seed length, seed thickness and seed breadth) also. Maximum mean value for 100-seed weight, seed breadth and seed thickness was also observed in RJ-7 agro-climatic zone. The 100-seed weight had significant positive correlation with pod length (0.351), pod thickness (0.701), seed length (0.784), seed breadth (0.531), seed thickness (0.709), EC of seeds (0.320) and seed oil content (0.315). The significant positive correlation between 100-seed weight and the seed oil content is of utmost importance as we can improve both simultaneously by simple selection procedures without adversely affecting each other. The physiological traits also showed significant variability across agro-climatics zones. The agro-climatic zones RJ-7 and RJ-8 (Rajasthan) and HR-1 (Haryana) were found better as sources of P. pinnata germplasm.
