Morphological characterization of Aloe vera germplasm.

摘要

In the experiment conducted at the Department of Plantation Crops and Spices, College of Agriculture, Vellayani during the period 2006-2007, morphological characterization of thirty diverse accessions of aloe collected from different parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu was done to determine the extent of variability and to identify superior genotypes. Statistical analysis of the data revealed significant morphological variation among the collected accessions. The height of the accessions ranged from 32.70 cm to 69.74 cm. Wide variation in plant spread was also observed for the thirty accessions evaluated, which varied from 0.318 m2 to 1.101 m2. Length of leaf ranged from 27.14 cm to 50.26 cm while breadth of leaf ranged from 4.54 to 7.14 cm. Leaf thickness ranged from 0.80 cm to 1.76 cm. The average fresh leaf weight ranged from 61.00 g to 192.70 g. Not much variation in leaf shape and leaf colour was observed among the accessions. The accessions produced leaves at significantly varying intervals with the period ranging from 26.40 to 48.00 days. The leaf yield varied from 0.599 to 2.922 kg plant-1 year-1. The latex yield also showed significant variation among accessions and it varied from 12.56 to 31.46 g plant-1 year-1. Upon ranking the thirty accessions based on the selection index scores, the accession AV-16 ranked first followed by AV-12, AV-2 and AV-6.