Aonla tree has gained great socio-economic impact in large part of the country. It has significant contribution to improvement of economic status of farming communities through commercial orcharding, nursery production and processing of herbal respect of fruit size, maturity period and yield per plant. Due to predominance of seedling propagation India holds rich genetic diversity in cultivated and their wild relatives of aonla. Genetic erosion status of these resources is constantly high due to severe deforestation, natural calamities and adoption of a few popular cultivars in the selected pockets. However, enormous variability in aonla still remains unexploited and awaits proper attention on exploration, collection and maintenance to conserve genetic diversity available in the nature. Besides cultivated species of Emblica (Phyllanthus), some other available species can be utilized in aonla breeding programmc to infuse hardiness into the offspring for adverse habitat. This paper discusses the diversity region, extent of variability with respect to quality, fruit character, germplasm holdings, evaluation and selection of genotypes, etc.
Aonla, Diversity, Genetic resources, Germplasm
