Abstract
Immature fruits of cultivated species of Luffa are commonly used as summer vegetable in India. Rich morphological variability occurs in cultivated species of Luffa in different growing regions of the country. To study morphological variability in cultivated and wild Luffa from different agro-ecological regions of India, a total of seventy accessions were assembled. Morphological variations in leaf, fruit and seed characters were found to delimit cultivated and wild Luffa species. Cluster analysis revealed two major clusters, one comprising of 36 accessions of Luffa acutangula and the other of 30 accessions belonging to L. aegyptiaca. A local cultivar “Satputia” (L. hermaphrodita) was classified along with cultivated L. acutangula and wild L. acutangula var. amara. Wild species namely L. graveolens and L. echinata were clustered closer to the L. acutangula.
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Acknowledgments
Authors express their sincere thanks to the Director, National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi, for guidance as well as for constant encouragement during the course of study. Thanks are also due to Head, Exploration Division, NBPGR for sparing facilities for conducting the experiments and Head, Evaluation Division, NBPGR and In-charge, Regional Station, Hyderabad for sharing material. Acknowledgements are also due to Drs. ER Nayar, K Pradheep, KC Bhatt and DP Semwal for sharing the study material and field observation; Ms. Rita Gupta, Sh Shashi Kant Sharma and Sh OP Dhariwal for help in various ways.
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Prakash, K., Pandey, A., Radhamani, J. et al. Morphological variability in cultivated and wild species of Luffa (Cucurbitaceae) from India. Genet Resour Crop Evol 60, 2319–2329 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-013-9999-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-013-9999-7