Variability studies on fruit characteristics of Terminalia bellirica

Fruit characteristic variation is an important aspect of germplasm evaluation of the species whose fruits have multipurpose uses. Terminalia bellirica is one of the important multipurpose tree species of the Western Himalaya whose fruits are used in various local and Ayurvedic medicines. Larger fruit size and higher pulp content fetches higher price in the market. Therefore, this paper investigates the fruit characteristic variation in the species with respect to geographic source in order to identify the mother trees with best characteristics for future tree improvement programmes. Average fresh and dry fruit weights varied significantly with the geographic source of mother tree and rangedfrom 9.60–15.60g and 4.18–6.44g respectively. Average fresh and dry pulp weights per fruit also varied significantly with the mother tree and ranged from 7.46–12.26g and 2.99–4.43g respectively. Average fruit length and diameter varied from 2.37–3.49cm and 1.96–3.03cm respectively. The mother tree located at Badori (J & K) possessed the highest average fruit and pulp contents. Regression models have been developed to predict fruit and pulp weight based on fresh fruit length and diameter. Fruit length was the key variable influencing the fresh and dry fruit weights and pulp contents.