S.K. DATTA¹ , D. Chakrabarty²

1. Retd. Scientist ‘G’CSIR-NBRI, Lucknow and Ex CSIR Emeritus Scientist, Bose Institute, Kolkata, India
2. Scientist, Plant Molecular Biology & Genetic Engineering Division, National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2015, Vol. 5, No. 21   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2015.05.0021
Received: 07 Aug., 2015    Accepted: 09 Sep., 2015    Published: 19 Aug., 2016

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Datta S.K., and Chakrabarty D., 2015, Classical and modern methods for characterization of ornamental crops, International Journal of Horticulture, 5(21): 1-45 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2015.05.0021)

Cultivar identification and cultivar relatedness are important issues for horticultural breeders. Characterization is most important for correct identification of plants. It helps to understand the genetic diversity, to trace out the phylogenetic relationship, taxonomical status, registration, plant variety protection, farmer’s right etc. A number of classical and advanced methods comprising different parameters of cytology, morphology, physiology, phenolic compounds, DNA markers etc. are utilized. Every method has its merits and demerits. Considering the limitations of each technique one should plan the characterization program on need basis. Attempts have been made to highlight the application of all the techniques by different authors on important ornamental crops.

Floriculture; Characterization; Genetic diversity; Classical methods; Advanced methods