Use of morphological traits as descriptors for identification of rice genotypes

Twenty cultivars of rice were studied to know various morphological characters responsible for identification of rice cultivars. The study revealed that plant morphological characters viz, awn length, panicle length, leaf blade colour and leaf sheath colour were found as the most important morphological characters for varietal identification in rice.Other morphological characters viz. node base colour, awning, distribution of awns, anthocyanin colouration of stem nodes and internodes and stigma colour were of secondary importance for identification of rice cultivars. On the other hand, leaf pigmentation, flag leaf angle, colour of lemma and palea, leaf hairiness, secondary branching of panicles, secondary branching pattern of panicles and attitude of panicle branching were not helpful in distinguishing the rice cultivars.