Morphological Characterization of Tea Flower in Some Tea Genetic Resources

The present investigation attempts to characterize 20 tea genetic resources which were growing in the Experimental Garden for Plantation Crops, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, on the basis of 10 flower characters. Three basic kinds of tea viz. China, Assam and intermediate Cambod types were considered as standards in the present study. Apart from using dimensional methods, morphological descriptor was used for characterization of floral morphology as per the recommendations of International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), Rome, Italy. The germplasm AS6, AS7, AS8, AS9, AS10, AS14, AS15 and AS16 resembled the Cambod type and exhibited better floral morphology, whereas AS 1, AS2, AS4, AS 11, AS 12 and AS 18 were similar to the Assam type and AS5, AS13, AS17, AS19 and AS20 were closer to the China type.