Morphological Characterisation of Tomato Wild Relatives

Abstract

The present experiment was carried out during the autumn winter season of 2012–13 to 2013–14. Six genotypes of five wild relatives of tomato were employed and observations were recorded on qualitative morphological characters such as growth habit, stem pigmentation, twig pigmentation, leaf type, leaf shape, leaf colour, leaf pubescence, inflorescence type, flower size, flower colour, style position, fruit shape, blossom end shape and ripe fruit colour. All the six Solanum species were indeterminate in growth habit. Visible anthocyanin pigmentation in the stem and twig was found in S. chilense, S. cheesmani and S. lycopersicum var. cerasiformae although anthocyanin pigmentation was not visible on the fruit. Inflorescence type was monopartite for all the Solanum species under study excepting S. peruvianum in which it is bipartite in nature. Leaf and inflorescence characters indicated that S. peruvianum was distinctly different than the other Solanum species employed in the present investigation. Style position was inserted inside the anther cone in S. pimpinellifolium and S. lycopersicum var. cerasiformae while it was found exserted beyond the anther cone in other three wild relatives, namely, S. chilense, S. cheesmaniae and S. peruvianum. Ripe fruits of S. cheesmaniae were orange-red and those of S. chilense were yellow while the fruits of S. peruvianum remained light green in colour upon ripening.