Varietal identification of different oilseed cultivars using mature plant characters

Eighteen mustard (Raya) i.e. Brassica juncea (L) four rapeseed (toria) i.e. Brassica campestris (L) and one cultivar each of Brassica campestris vat. yellow sarson, Brassica campestris var. brown sarson, Brassica napus (L.) and Eruca sativa (L.) (Taramira) were studied for 14 various quantitative and qualitative characters for two years. Mature plant characters like growth habit, mature leaf shape, mature leaf colour, intensity of primary branches, number of secondary branches, main shoot length, morphotype uniformity and basal side shoot development were used to classify the varieties, which provided a sound classification system as these characters exhibit distinct varietal patterns. The mature leaf colour, morphotype uniformity and plant height were the plant characters that showed continuous differences during both the seasons. Hence, all the other characters studied were found useful for purpose of cultivar identification was also prepared. It was possible to distinguish all the cultivars individually using the seed key.