Indian Journal of Plant Physiology

A trial was conducted to asses the performance of some locally grown upland rice cultivars of Assam, viz. Kolong, Luit, Nilajee, IR-50 and Gunni under different moisture regimes; 0 bar, -2 bar and -6 bar. Moisture deficit resulted in lowering of the seed germination percentage and seedling vigour in all the cultivars but the cultivars varied significantly in their response to moisture stress in regards to these traits. The local cultivars (Kolong and Luit) had comparatively higher seedling vigour and profuse root growth. Higher chlorophyll content was recorded in Kolong and Luit as compared to IR-50 and other genotypes. The leaf anatomical characteristics such as thickness of cuticle, palisade, and spongy parenchyma cells were found to be higher in Luit; however, the stomatal index and stomatal size were lower in this cultivar followed by Kolong. Higher values of RWC and chlorophyll stability index were also recorded in Luit followed by Kolong. These local cultivars also registered higher xylem number and xylem area in root. From the observations, it can be concluded that the local cultivars are having better adaptive characters for moisture deficit situation compared to the high yielding cultivar IR-50.