Genotypic variation in hip traits of Indian rose varieties

The study was carried out to characterize the hips of the Indian garden rose varieties. Hips of eleven varieties, viz., Jantar Mantar, Pusa Pitamber, Rose Sherbet, Jawani, Manmatha, Delhi Princess, Dr Benjamin Pal, Pusa Veerangana, Pusa Mohit, Jawahar and Surabhi were studied. Significant variation was found between varieties with respect to hip length, hip width, hip form index, hip weight, hip flesh weight, hip flesh ratio, total number of achenes per hip, total achene weight per hip, titrable acidity and ascorbic acid content. The rose hip form index was between 0.95–1.21. The flesh weight of hips and hip: flesh ratio ranged between 1.38–5.80 and 66.70–84.00%, respectively. The number of achenes per hip ranged between 9.20–27.60. The titrable acidity (%) and ascorbic acid content in the varieties ranged between 1.33–3.13 and 20.88- 68.97 mg 100 g⁻¹, respectively. It can be concluded from the present study that garden varieties, viz., Pusa Veerangana, Pusa Mohit and Jawahar have favourable fruit traits like higher hip weight, better hip flesh ratio and higher vitamin C content among the selected garden varieties. These varieties have favourable traits that make them ideal candidates as donor parents for production of varieties suitable for processing.