Floral morphological and flowering studies in some plum and apricot cultivars

摘要

Plums and apricots are the important temperate fruits being grown commercially in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttaranchal. The cultivation of plums has even extended to subtropical plains of North India. Both of these fruits crops belong to subgenus Prunophora of genus Prunus of family Rosaceae. The ploidy level varies from diploid (2n = 2x = 16) in apricot and Japanese plums to hexaploid (2n = 2x = 48) in European plums with basic chromosome number of x = 8 in all cases. Theplums have smooth non-hairy peel and diverse climatic adaptability, whereas the apricots have better flavour but climate specific. Floral morphology in particular pistil length provides an aid in the success of any hybridization programme. The success of an interspecific Prunus cross has been reported to depend on using a seed parent with a pistil shorter than that of pollen parent (Olden, 2; Coyle, 1). Hence, keeping these broad facts in view, the present work was undertaken.