Morphological characterization of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis osbeck) germplasm under subtropical conditions

Characterization and evaluation of cultivars is basic key for better identification and breeding programmes. Experiment was carried out on eight cultivars in randomized block design with eight replications (one plant per replication) on five year old plants. Rootstock used was rough lemon, planted at a spacing of 3 x 6m. Plants were evaluated for their vegetative and floral characters. Vegetative characters like branch angle, shoot tip surface, shoot tip colour, vegetative life cycle, intensity of green colour, leaf lamina attachment were similar for all the genotypes depicting very less variability in qualitative characters. Significant variability was recorded among quantitative characters like rootstock diameter, leaf lamina length and width, floral characters and pollen viability.