Variability for Flower Characters in Cultivated and Wild Species of Gossypium, L.

Cotton is the most important fibre crop of world, belonging to genus Gossypium. This genus includes approximately 50 species distributed in arid to semi-arid regions. Hybridization and introgression have played important role in the evolution of new world cotton. The success of crossing, i.e. identification of a true hybrid can be established using morphological characters like presence/absence of floral and foliar nectaries, leaf lobbing, petal spot and colour. Hence efforts were made during present investigation for characterization of the cotton species including perennial cotton and other races and wild cotton belonging to the genomes and sub genomes. In case of ‘A’ genome longest peduncle length was observed in Punaspatti where as flower colour ranged from dark yellow to pinkwish white. In ‘B’ genome all four species had flowers with varying intensity. In this group the largest petal spot was recorded in G anomalum. In the ‘B’ genome species the shortest peduncle was observed in G aridum while it was longest in G armourianum whereas the flower colour varies its intensity from cream white to yellow. In the genome E flower colour appears from light yellow to yellow with petal spot. G longicalyx belonging to F genome shows yellow flower without petal spot. The peducle length in AID. genome was shortest in Seridov and longest in Exotic-3. The flower colour of this genome produced cream to yellow flowers. These results revealed that there is wide range in the floral characters of races and perennial types of cultivated cottons as well as wild species of Gossypium. Qualitative characters are under the control of either single or two genes. The information on flower characters will certainly useful for selecting desired types from the segregation of populations both for improved yield, fibre quality parameters coupled with resistance to diseases and pests.