Morphological Studies in Interspecific Hybrid Between Corchorus pseudo-olitorius Islam and Zaid and Corchorus capsularis Linn

摘要

Corchorus is a genus within the family Tiliaceae and comprises around 50-60 species. Jute is the common name given to the fibre extracted from the stems of plants belonging to it. Only two species of Corchorus, namely C. capsularis L. and C. olitorius L. are grown commercially. It is the second most common natural fibre, next to cotton cultivated in the world. It is mainly grown in India, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal and Thailand. In order to improve the jute of commerce, interspecific hybridization was first undertaken between the two cultivated jute species. The first successful hybrid between the two cultivated jute species was reported by smearing the pedicel of the pollinated flower with indole acetic acid. In India, Swaminathan et al. obtained interspecific hybrid using grafting between the two cultivated species reciprocally prior to crossing. Subsequently, successful interspecific hybrids were obtained both at diploid and tetraploid level among cultivated species without using hormone, irradiated pollen and grafting.