Morphological variants induced from shoot tips of taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) treated with gamma radiation

Plantlets were regenerated on a revised Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with 1 mg 1⁻¹ 6-benzyladenine (BA) from shoot tip explants of taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) treated with 0–20 Gy of gamma radiation. These were acclimated in the greenhouse and cultivated in the field. No visible variation was observed among plants grown from seed corms and shoot tips treated with gamma radiation. A 12% rate of variation was observed among plants directly regenerated from the irradiated shoot tips. Among these plants, eight variants were selected and observed for various characters during the succeeding year. The morphological characteristics of the eight variants are described. Increased number of lateral shoots, flowering behavior, increase or decrease in plant height, presence or absence of corms, unusually small and large leaf blades, variations in the amount of anthocyanin in petioles, late sprouting and late wilting are among the significant characteristics of the variants. Variants R28 and R51, which are dwarf types, and R56 and R152, whose corms can be separated easily from the main corm, were considered horticulturally valuable. Variants R12 and R15 did not produce corms, but extensive flowering occurred. (author)