Morphological characterization of tuberose (Polianthes tuberosaLinn.) germplasms using DUS testing

Abstract

Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa Linn.) occupies a very selective and special position among the ornamental bulbous plants which are valued for the beauty and fragrance of their flowers. As there is much confusion in the naming of genetic material existing in various Indian states as they are exclusively referred to as single genotype and all the local doubles probably from another. The major thrust at present is to maintain their purity besides registration (patents) and commercial release of new varieties. Therefore, an attempt was made to characterize most of the already released tuberose varieties over years so as to develop identification keys that are reliable and relatively easy to perform while implementing DUS testing. The morphological characterization of fifteen varieties clearly brought out the differences. The data presented indicated that these varieties did not differ significantly when one trait i.e. leaf waxiness of vegetative character are taken into consideration. However, distinct differences were noticed in thirteen floral characters and ten in foliage (vegetative character). The study on tuberose varieties has successfully demonstrated that fifteen varieties of tuberose differ significantly in 13/10 characters, which makes the candidate variety eligible to seek protection in future. The present study therefore provides very useful leads for future research efforts in this direction.