Leaf description
The kokum leaves were largely lanceolate, few broadly lanceolate/narrowly lanceolate, some with obovate and ovate shapes. Majority of the leaves were lanceolate with acute tip and a mild wavy margin near the tip of the leaf. Few leaves had sub acute tips and very less number of accessions had obtuse tips. Out of the 268 accessions studied, 164 (61.19%) accessions had lanceolate leaves with or without wavy margin and acute or sub acute tips; 56 accessions (20.90%) were broadly lanceolate with or without mildly wavy margin and acute or obtuse tips; 44 (16.42%) accessions either ovate or obovate with acute to obtuse tips with or without wavy margins; 4 (1.49%) accessions were narrowly lanceolate with acute to sub acute tips with wavy margin. Similar variation was reported in kokum by several others like Anon. (1956), Cooke (1954) Sawant et al., (1999) and Godbole and Das (2000).
Leaf length (cm)
The leaf length showed a good variation ranging from a minimum of 6.24 cm in accession 222, to a maximum of 11.95 cm (Acc. No. 265) and 11.76cm (Acc. Nos. 30, 169, 174 and 191). The leaf length ranging from 10.95 to 11.95 were not ovate / obovate in shape.
Leaf width (cm)
Observations on width of all accessions studied varied from a minimum of 2.42 cm in Acc. No. 228, followed by 2.48 cm in Acc. No. 267 to a maximum of 5.25 cm (Acc. No. 30) followed by 5.10 cm (Acc. No.241). The accessions having mean leaf width ranging from 4.19 cm to 5.25 cm were ovate or broadly lanceolate / broadly ovate (Acc. Nos. 2, 71, 258 and 238) and those with leaf widths range of 3.12 cm to 4.00 cm were lanceolate and those in a range of 2.7 to 2.88 cm were narrowly lanceolate.
Leaf length: width ratio
Ratio between length and width of the leaf ranged from a minimum of 1.87 (Acc. No.153; broadly lanceolate) to a maximum of 4.12 (Acc. No. 232; narrowly lanceolate). The lower ratios ranging from 1.86 to 2.06 had broadly lanceolate and ovate leaves (Acc. Nos. 153, 157 and 52), where as the group with ratio varying from 2.32 to 3.19 had lanceolate leaves (Acc. Nos. 18, 27, 31, 49, 57 and 69); the leaves that were narrowly lanceolate had larger ratios like 3.46 (Acc. No. 267), 3.48 (Acc. No. 259), 3.95 (Acc. No. 95) and 4.12 (Acc. No. 232).
Petiole Length (cm)
Petiole length varied from 0.60 cm in Acc. No. 231, to a maximum of 1.37 cm in Acc. No. 264. The petiole length had no correlation with the leaf shape or leaf length.
Petiole colour
Colour of petiole was either green or pink or greenish pink. Out of the 269 accessions studied, a total of 131 accessions had green petioles (48.88 %); 48 accessions had pink coloured petioles (17.91 %) and 89 accessions had greenish pink petioles (33.21 %). All the three types were found to occur in all the taluks /zones.
Source-
- Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, Ela, Old Goa, Goa
