Heliconias are wonderful tropical plants, known for the beauty of their flowers. These flowers exhibit a wide array of colours lead by red, pink, orange, yellow, green, combined with different sizes and shape. Therefore this study on genetic cataloguing was attempted with twenty seven genotypes of Heliconia keeping in view of their utility in further breeding programmes. A wide range of variation was observed among the genotypes for several morphological characters. It was observed that most of the genotypes were medium in plant height (41.3%) and produced 5–10 suckers. With respect to the spike orientation, variations were observed and three types of orientation were noticed, while 77.79% genotypes produced erect spikes, a few genotypes (7.40%) had pendulous spikes. Semi pendant orientation was observed in 14.81 percent of the genotypes. The flowers were large and showy and with bright colours viz., red, pink, yellow and orange. As this crop is gaining popularity as a new cut flower, this study will pave a base for formulating the descriptive blank and to breed new varieties with desirable qualities for commercial adaptation.
Heliconia, Genetic cataloguing
