Studies on floral biology in citrus

Abstract

The genus citrus comprises of the most extensively cultivated group of fruits in the world. The long history of citriculture and richness in germplasm of citrus has benefited breeding work. The knowledge of floral morphology and fruit set is the pre-requisite for initiation of any breeding programme. With these objectives the present research work was carried out at Santra Improvement Project, Horticulture, section, College of Agriculture, Nagpur during the ambia bahar of 2024-25. Different eight citrus species and varieties viz. Nagpur mandarin, Nagpur seedless, Fairchild mandarin, Kinnow mandarin, Daisy, Katol gold, Grape fruit and Pummelo were examined for floral biology in Randomized Block Design with four replications, Duration of flowering ranged from 19.50 to 42.60 days while length of pedicel was between 0.43 cm to 1.31 cm. length of flower bud was maximum in pummelo (2.09 cm) and minimum in Nagpur mandarin and Fairchild mandarin (1.33 cm). Colour of flower bud and open flower was white for all citrus parents except in Grape fruit which was white with green spot. Position of flower was found to be axillary terminal for all evaluated parents.