Collecting wild species of crop plants from Aravalli Hills, Rajasthan, India

A germplasm collection mission to Aravalli hills was undertaken to collect mainly wild species of Cucumis, Sesamum solanum and Vigna during October 1996. The area showed wide distribution of wild species. Cucumis hystrix Chakra. was collected from Mount Abu, Sirohi and Udaipur hills. In all, 110 samples consisting of Cucumis callosus (28). C. hystrix (6), Sesamum mulayanum (59), Solanum indicum (1), S. higrum (4), S. seaforthianum (1), S. surattense (9) and Vigna radiata var sublobata (2) were assembled from Ajmer, Dungarpur, Jaipur, Jhunjhunu, Pali, Rajsamand, Sikar, Sirohi and Udaipur districts of Rajasthan. A wide range of variability was recorded in Cucumis callosus and Sesamum mulayanum. Collected germplasm may be utilized in the breeding programmes.