Morphological characterization and assessment of variability in selected oat, Avena sativa Lgermplasm accessions

The present study was carried out to characterize 48 oat genotypes on the basis of morphological and qualitative characters. Lodging at mature stage was highly variable and five categories were established for this trait at harvesting time conforming the divergence among the genotypes studied. Upright at maturity stage was predominant (81.25%) among the genotypes followed by minor lodging (12.50%), intermediate (4.16%) and lodged type categories (2.16%). Regarding growth habit majority of the genotypes were found to possess erect nature (85.41%) followed by semi-prostrate (14.58%) and none of the genotypes possessed prostrate nature of growth habit. It is important to select favourable genotypes with convenient erect trait. All the genotypes were found to possess glabrous nature for hairiness of leaf sheath and equilateral nature of panicle. Most of the genotypes had yellow (89.58%) and 10.41 per cent had white colour lemma. None of the accessions had lemma hairiness. This descriptor is of great importance in differentiating the two different species. Thus these kinds of characters may be utilized to select the agronomically superior genotypes visually. The genotypes having an erect plant growth habit with glabrous leaf sheath, erect nature of panicles and spikelets with waxiness were to be selected for abiotic stress tolerance. From the frequency distribution of different qualitative characters the evolutionary significance of a particular class could be inferred.