Assessment of floral characters in commercial varieties of monopodial orchids

The present study was carried out to evaluate 15 monopodial orchid genotypes belonging to the genera Aranda, Aranthera, Kagawara, Mokara, Renanthera and Vanda, which are commercially popular. They were studied with respect to quantitative and qualitative floral characters. The data were statistically analysed in a completely randomized design. Important quantitatve floral traits including number of inflorescences produced per year, length of inflorescence and length and width of flowers were computed. Major qualitative floral characters such as flowering nature, mode of display of flowers, vase life and fullness value were assessed. A clear understanding of these traits is inevitable for the selection of parents for successful conduct of crop improvement programmes in orchids. Since there is a wide range of variation for most of the traits studied, these genotypes can be utilised further for the production of novel monopodial orchid hybrids.