Cytomorphological characterization of tea cultivars

Cytomorphological characterization was performed on tea cultivars,three each of camellia sinensis and camellia assamica species. for plant morphological study,one and a half year old healthy shoots were obtained from the selected mother bushes of the six tea cultivars. the field experiment conducted in randomized complete block design having four replications was aimed at evaluating plant height,number of leaves plant-l,number of branches plant-l,number of flowers plant-1,fresh and dry leaf weight plant-i. the data indicated significant difference between the two species with narrow leaved cultivars having increased plant height,number of leaves and branches plant-i than the broad leaved cultivars,but less number of flowers plant-l,fresh and dry leaf weight. karyotype analysis indicated that both the groups are diploid with 2n = 30. on the basis of chromosome morphology,c. assamica had larger chromosomes (3-10.5μm) as compared to c. sinensis (3.9-8μm). c. assamica has relatively advanced features as compared to c. sinensis. however,both the groups possessed mostly median to sub-median centromeres with no secondary constrictions which possibly indicates that little or no evolutionary changes have taken place in tea and that the karyotype is still at a primitive stage,with c. sinensis being more primitive than c. assamica. our results suggest that both the groups are different from each other in morphological as well as cytological attributes and could therefore generate more germplasm if the two species could be involved in tea breeding programs.