Morphological Diversity of Wild Rice (O. nivara S.D. Sharma and Shastry) Accessions in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) has been cultivated as a major crop for about thousands of years, and it currently sustains nearly one-half of the world population. Wild relatives of rice are an invaluable resource for rice upgrading by widening genetic diversity and incorporating useful traits to modern cultivars. In this context, phenotypic variations of O.nivara accessions exist in Sri Lanka were studied, based on thirteen quantitative morphological traits. The results revealed high phenotypic diversity among O.nivara accessions tested. Among the vegetative traits studied, a huge variability was observed for the plant height (138.70±6.1-93.00±3.Ocm) and seedling height (55.50±3.8-27.10±1.8cm). Among the reproductive traits observed, panicle length (31.5±0.3-12.2±0.3cm), panicle-bearing tillers/plant (25.3±1.2-11.7±2.5), number of spikelets/ panicle (123±5.3-47±3.6), filled grains/panicle (98.7±3.1-24.3±4.0) and shattered seeds/panicle (105.33±7.6-44±1.7) showed remarkable variability among accessions. This study highlights the phenotypic diversity of 0. nivara accessions exist in Sri Lanka and the potential of using them in rice improvement program in future.