Morphological Variation of Fruits and Seeds of Garcinia indica (Thouars) Choisy in Western Ghats Region of Karnataka, India

Garcinia indica is an important indigenous tree, which grows in tropical and evergreen forests of India and has a tremendous potential to be utilised in various value-added applications. The present study aims at understanding the variation in fruit and seed characters among 16 populations in Western ghats region of Karnataka. The large variation exists in economically important characters such as seed weight, fruit weight and rind weight and a significant variation was observed in morphological characters of different populations. The samples collected from Gundya region shown highest fruit and seed traits except in rind weight and rind thickness which was high in the fruit samples collected from Belthangady. Astrong dependence of morphological characters on geoclimatic factors was revealed in correlation studies. The cluster analysis carried indicated that these16 population divided into two major groups based on the different morphological characters studied. The results concluded that G. indica showed a high level of phenotypic plasticity and these results can be used as a foundation for selective breeding.