Morphological and Anatomical Characterization of Dewlap in Polycross Progenies of Saccharum robustum Brandes & Jesw. Ex Grassl.

Interspecific hybridization is the backbone of sugarcane improvement and the most widely used species have been Saccharum offi cinarum and S. spontaneum. Contribution of the other wild species S. robustum to the modern sugarcane varieties has been negligible due to the poor agronomic and quality traits coupled with susceptibility to diseases like mosaic and smut. The utilization of red-fleshed S. robustum gained a certain level of recognition due to its high polyphenol and anti-oxidant content with potential health benefits associated with it. The current study was undertaken to ascertain the morphological and anatomical variability in dewlap within a set of 20 progenies of red-fleshed S. robustum. The red-fleshed S. robustum have dark purple coloured dewlap which was inherited in their progenies with a little variation to its colour. However, the progenies showed wide variation in dewlap shape, size, cell composition and arrangements. The organization of vascular bundles, distribution of silica cells, cork cells, and hairs varied between the progenies. The correlation of anatomical traits with yield and quality traits showed that abaxial hairiness on dewlap was positively correlated with pol% but long cells on epidermis were negatively correlated with cane thickness, single cane weight and cane length. This paper discusses the variation for morphological and anatomical traits of dewlap and its usefulness in the crop improvement programsof sugarcane.