Download or read book Morphological characterization of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas Lam.) varieties in Kerala: an overview written by Prem Jose Vazhacharickal and published by Amazon. This book was released on 2017-11-21 with total page 57 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas Lam.) is the seventh most important food crop among the root and tuber crops grown in the world which is widely cultivated in tropic, sub tropic and warmer temperate regions. A wide variation exists among sweet potato varieties. The molecular markers Is an important genetic diversity analysis tool for enhancing duplicates identification. The samples were collected based on an elaborative iterative survey as well as traditional knowledge from local people. Thirteen different varieties Ipomoea batatas Lam. varieties (Kuravanpady 1, Kuravanpady 2, Jellipara 1, Jellipara 2, Kottathara, Kadanadu, Kanaka, Aruna, Kanjagad, Cherukizhangu 1, Cherukizhangu 2, Thodupuzha. Palakkad) were used for morphological characterization. Morphological data were collected 60 days after planting based on the descriptors for sweet potato (IBPGR, 1991) in all the 13 samples. The variable scored were twining, plant type, ground cover, vine inter node, vine pigmentation, vine tip pubescence, mature leaf shape, mature leaf size, abaxial leaf vein pigmentation, foliage colour, petiole length, petiole pigmentation, storage root and skin colour. Molecular characterization could be more effectively used in screening varieties among sweet potatoes if coupled with other molecular markers especially ISSR, matK and rbcL markers.