MORPHOLOGICAL MARKERS FOR IDENTIFICATION OF Populus deltoides CLONES IN NURSERY

A study was undertaken to establish morphological markers for the identification of 10 widely grown clones of poplar. Ten poplar clones namely G3, G48, S7C1, S7C4, S7C8, S7C20, L34, PP5, Fierelo and D121 were planted in nursery block of Agroforestry Research Centre, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, in a randomised block design with 3 replications. Observations were recorded for qualitative (leaf shape, leaf pigmentation, leaf serration, leaf tip type, ridge line, ridge shape) and quantitative (bud length, bud diameter, number of buds and internodal length) traits. Clones G3, S7C4, S7C8, L34 and D121 showed similar kind of leaf shape 'B' while clones G48, S7C1, S7C20, PP5 and Fierelo showed 'A' type leaf shape. Clones S7C8 and G3 had type 'A' and 'B' pigmentation, respectively, other clones showed no pigmentation. All studied clones showed similar kind of leaf serration. 'A' type of leaf tip was observed in clone G3, S7C4, S7C8, S7C20, L34 and PP5 while 'B' type leaf tip was found in G48, S7C 1, Fierelo and D121. Bud length ranged from 3.12 mm (Fierelo) to 3.80 mm (S7C4) and bud diameter varied from 2.95 mm (G48) to 4.08 mm (G3). Maximum number of buds per metre stem length were observed in G48 and S7C20 while minimum buds were counted in D121. Similar fashion of ridge shape was observed in all the clones. Very prominent ridge was found in clone S7C4 while other clones have prominent ridge. Internodal length ranged from 3.38 cm in clone S7C1 to 4.25 cm in clone L34.