Morphological Descriptors for Ethiopian Wild Coffea arabica L. Genetic Resources Conserved in India

Eighteen accessions of wild Coffea arabica from different geographic locations of Ethiopia available in the gene bank of Central Coffee Research Institute; Balehonnur, Karnataka,India, were evaluated for vegetative, inflorescence and flowering traits. Three cultivated varieties of Ethiopian Arabica coffee viz.. Agaro, Cioccie and Tafarikela were considered as standards in the present study. Morphological descriptor of International Plant Genetic Resource Institute was used as the basic format for the characterization. Vegetative characters showing large variation were identified to be young leaf colour and angle of insertion of primary branches. Among the reproductive traits studied. flower number per axil was found to manifest large variation. These traits of fer scope for selection and thus, this information is expected to be useful for conservation of genotypes in the Gene Bank and selection and utilization in the breeding programmes.