Morphological Diversity of Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.) Landraces from Northeast India

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.) is an important crop in the high altitude regions of Northeast Indian Himalayas. The agro-climatic heterogeneity of this region offers a great deal of diversity in agro-morphology of buckwheat species. In the current study, a total of 97 accessions of Fagopyrum esculentum and F. tataricum were characterized for 16 morphological descriptors. Significant variations were observed for agronomically important traits including days to 50% flowering, days to 80% maturity, primary branches plant⁻¹, plant height and 100-seed weight. Wide range of variation was noted for most of the traits in both species. Characterization of buckwheat accessions from Northeast will facilitate in selecting morphologically diverse parents for breeding programmes particularly adapted to Northeast cropping system.