New multipetalous variety G. Ad.2 in Adenium obesum

Abstract

Research was conducted on Adenium obesum, a popular flowering pot plant with the basic objective for genetic improvement at Advance Technology Centre of soilless system, Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, NAU, Navsari. Initially, hybridization was done involving ten parents (seven females and three males) in 2014 and their crosses were studied during 2015 to 2016. Among the crosses studied, a germplasm viz., MSDSH1 (Mung Siam x Double Sweet Heart) showed novel morphological character for colour and flower form having attractive purplish coloured ten petals. Further evaluation was carried out for stability and other flowering characters along with its parents viz., Mung Siam and Double Sweet Heart (DSH) and the local germplasm, Local Pink for two years 2016-17 and 2017-18. The MSDSH1 was significantly superior in terms of the number of flowers per cluster (10.23) and flower longevity on plant (11.91 days) as compared to parent and Local Pink as inferred from the pooled data of two years. Flower diameter was significantly superior in DSH at par with MSDSH1 (7.06 cm) while that of Mung Siam was minimum (5.89 cm), although the diameter of corolla was maximum (1.62 cm) in Local Pink while the length of corolla tube (4.01 cm) was maximum in Double Sweet Heart. Further, the maximum flower weight was observed in Double Sweet Heart (1.72 g) which was at par with MSDSH1 (1.61 g). Number of petals was ten in MSDSH1 and Double Sweet Heart as compared to Mung Siam and Local Pink with five petals. Since the genotype MSDSH1 was novel in flower colour with reddish purple shade and morphology with ten multipetalous flower form, besides being superior for the other flowering parameters, especially the number of flowers per cluster and flower longevity on plant, it was renamed as G. Ad.2 and released in SVRC, Gujarat.

Keywords

• adenium
• g. ad.2
• pot plant
• germplasm
• hybridization
• soilless