Study of Qualitative Characters of Balam Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Land Races of Bangladesh

Abstract

Twenty-one qualitative agro-morphological characters of 40 Balam rice were studied during T. Aman 2009 and T. Aman 2011 seasons at Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Gazipur. Single seedling was transplanted using spacing within and between rows of 20 and 25 cm. The fertilizers were applied at the rate of 60-50-40-10 kg NPKS per hectare. The qualitative characters were recorded using procedure of DUS tests for inbreed and hybrid rice of Bangladesh. The presence and split or two-cleft shape type penultimate leaf ligule showed no variation. In total, 24 land races (60%) showed colorless leaf sheath and basal leaf sheath, 14 (35%) had green leaf blade, 16 (40%) had strong surface pubescence of penultimate leaf blade, 33 (82%) showed colorless auricles and collar, 30 (75%) had white color of stigma, 33 (82%) showed erect blade of flag leaf, 31 (77%) had erect curvature of lateral tiller, 30 (75%) showed colorless nodes, 17 (42%) had weak intensity of color in internodes, 14 (35%) showed yellowish to straw color lemma and palea and 18 (45%) had its medium intensity, 16 (40%) showed yellowish/straw color apiculus, 35 (87%) had awnless grain and 23 (58%) showed intermediate type of leaf senescence. Besides, Balam rice along with BR7, BR16, BRRI dhan50 and Nizersail were grouped into four major clusters by the UPGMA clustering method based on Dice coefficient. Cluster III was the largest group with thirty genotypes. The dendrogram revealed that the genotypes B7 (acc. no. 853) and B23 (acc. no. 878) was 100% duplicate or similar. The genetic distance ranging from 0.0 to 9.995 also indicated wide genetic variation among the germplasm. Finally, Balam rice showed unique feature of valuable genes for safe conservation in Gene bank and sustainable utilization in future breeding programs regarding intellectual property rights.