Floral morphology of Eleaegnus latifolia L.

Eleaegnus latifolia L. is one of the most important life sustaining underutilized fruit crops among the tribes of the eastern Himalaya region. The fruits have several uses and all parts of the fruits including seed are edible at all stages of fruit growth. Despite of great potential, little or no information is available on its flower characteristic, which is a pre-requisite for understanding the reproductive biology of the species. Five genotypes of Eaeagnus latifolia L. collected from different locations of Meghalaya were used to study its flowering and fruiting traits. Result revealed that inflorescence is a raceme, appears in clusters from the leaf axils, flowers are light yellow coloured, hermaphrodite, actinomorphic and gives strong aroma. Ovary is inferior surrounded by hypanthium. Significant variations were observed among the genotypes for all the flower characteristics such as dimension of ovary, stigmas and pollen length in the polar region. Maximum bud intensity was recorded in REC-3 (16.0) on current season shoot. Number of flower buds was higher in the current season shoots as compared to previous season. Regardless of genotypes, number of flowers was higher in the middle portion of the shoot. Total number of flowers per shoot was maximum in REC-4 (127.0). Flowering duration per inflorescence varied from 6.0 days (REC-1 and REC-2) to 8.67 days in REC-4. Initial fruit set was recorded maximum in REC-1 (37.95%) and minimum in REC-2 (14.15%).