Dr. A.K. Srivastava,
Professor, Department of Botany,
C.C.S. University, Meerut-250004,
INDIA.

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We are having 257 accessions of Carthamus that belong to five different species (C. lanatus ­8; C. lanatus sub-species turkestanicus­5; C. glaucus-2; C. oxycantha-1; C. palaestinus-7; C. tinctorius-234). All the accessions have been evaluated the following parameters.

A.  Seed characteristics:
   1.  Weight of 100 seeds
   2.  Volume of 100 seeds
   3.  Number of ridges per seed
   4.  Color of the seeds
   5.  Percent seed germination
   6.  Any other peculiarity present
B.  Seedling growth:
   1. Temporal rate of seedling elongation
   2. Fresh and dry weights of different parts of the seedlings.
   3. Temporal rate of stored dry matter consumption
C.  Plant morphology analyzed at a regular of 15 days:
   1. Plant height
   2. Length of un-branched stem
   3. Girth of un-branched stem
   4. Number of primary, secondary and tertiary branches
D.  Floral characteristics at the time of full bloom:
   1. Number of heads per plant
   2. Frequency of sterile and fertile florets per head per plant
   3. Number of seeds produced per plant
E.  Foliar epidermal pattern
   1. Number of epidermal cells and stomata per unit area and their proportions
   2. Guard cell index
   3. Dimensions of stomata
   4. Area of the stomata pore

Besides the above parameters we are also evaluating in detail
   a. Somatic karyotype
   b. Reproductive biology related parameters including male meiosis, male and female gametophyte development and other characteristics, pollen per anther, pollen grain fertility and diameter, etc.

We want to produce trisomic lines and translocation lines for future use in gene mapping and individual chromosome characterization. Seeds of several accessions have been treated with colchicine and irradiated with gamma rays. The work is in progress. For establishing phylogenetic and genome relationships between different species and accessions of one species procured from different parts of the world inter-and intra-specific hybrids have been produced and are being evaluated.

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