Mohan LAL, Joyashree BARUAH, Twahira BEGUM, Rose Laldinaii DARNEI, Jami NYITAN

Identification of Novel Five Variants of Caladium Species Through Multi-Environmental Evaluation

Caladiums, commonly termed ‘angels wings’ are high valued ornamental plants known for their attractive multi-coloured foliage. The plants are toxic to human but the leaves are known to possess antimicrobial, antiangiogenic, antioxidant and antitoxic properties. Caladium species show wide range of variations in the length, width and number of leaves per plant and their market value depends on the type and colour of leaf. So, development of unique Caladium varieties with attractive foliage thus makes them a highly priced plant in the market. The present study therefore focuses on identification and development of unique Caladium varieties for commercialization using twenty-five germplasm collected from different parts of Northeast region. The study was conducted during spring 2019 and 2020, following which five novel variants were identified, viz-Caladium red flash (Jor-Lab CL-36), C. bicolour var. florida clown (Jor-Lab CL-12), C. hunboldtii var. mini white (Jor-Lab CL-54), C. bicolor var. florida sweetheart (Jor-Lab CL-115), C. bicolor var. red star (Jor-Lab CL-24). Jor-Lab CL-36 showed olive green foliage, Jor-Lab CL-12 and Jor-Lab CL-24 each showed green foliage. Jor-Lab CL-54 exhibited green and white contrast foliage, while Jor-Lab CL-115 showed pink foliage with green margin. Multilocation trial study conducted during spring 2021 for the identified lines at four locations of North East India further confirmed their stability performance and found stable for different agronomical traits and colour combinations.

Keywords:

Angel wings, foliage variability, high priced, novel variants, multilocation study,

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