MORPHOLOGICAL VARIABILITY IN THE COMMON SEDGE PLANTS IN INDIA

KEERTI TANTWAI¹*, SHARAD TIWARI², ANSARI TABASSUM^3
1Biotechnology Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Krishinagar, Adhartal, Jabalpur, 482004, Madhya Pradesh, India
²Biotechnology Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University, Krishinagar, Adhartal, Jabalpur, 482004, Madhya Pradesh, India
³Department of Botany, NES Science and Commerce College, Jabalpur 482002, India
* Corresponding Author : tantwaik@gmail.com

Received : 29-09-2016     Accepted : 02-11-2016     Published : 12-11-2016
Volume : 8     Issue : 55       Pages : 3000 - 3007
Int J Agr Sci 8.55 (2016):3000-3007

Keywords : Sedge, Cyperaceae, Morphological variation, Cluster analysis
Academic Editor : Dr Bishun Deo Prasad
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : None declared
Author Contribution : None declared

Cyperus is the second largest genus of the sedges or Cyperaceae family, the plants of which are identified as one of the most common agricultural weeds. A total of eighty two sedge plants were collected from twenty one different places covering seven states of India. The plant species and morphological variations among different species were determined based on overall plant growth characteristics. The samples were identified as belonging to seventeen different species of Cyperus and related genera on the basis of UPGMA cluster analysis using Jaccard and Simple Matching coefficients. The mantel test coefficient between these two similarity coefficients was 0.97169. Based on morphological variations, plant samples were identified to be belonging to twelve different species of Cyperus, three species from genus Fimbristylis and two species from genus Kyllinga. Several morphological traits were assessed for identification of plants up to species level, among those spikelet was found the best to be used for the identification of sedge species.