Diversity of cucumber and melons from Rajasthan

An exploration was undertaken in south-west, west, south-east and central parts of Rajasthan and wide range of variability was observed/collected particularly in cucumber, snapmelon. Kachri and snake cucvmber. A total of 399 collections were made Jodhpur, Nagaur and Bikaner areas were veritable ‘goldmine’ of snapmelons. The germplasm were highly variable for fruit cnaracters and widely distributed (including in the sand-dunes habitats). Kachri (Cucumis collosus) melons were uniformly distributed throughout Rajasthan. Locally adapted landraces in Cucumber (Sawanariya, Balamkakdi) had move variation in Sirohi (Abu) and Shekhavati areas for fruit shape, fruit skin colour, fruit skin mottling, colour of stripes, fruit skin glossiness, fruit lengthlwidth, weight and stem-endlblossom-end fruit shape, flesh texture and flesh colour.