Morphological Diversity in Germplasm of Panicum antidotale Retz

The study was conducted during 2005 for screening the best germplasm of a perennial grass Panicum antidotale Retz. from Cholistan desert, Pakistan. A total of nine accessions were assessed through morpho-anatomical characters and data generated, revealed considerable variation for flag leaf area, number of hairs on upper surface of the leaf, number of hairs on lower surface of the leaf, number of epidermal appendages at the margins of leaf base, thickness of leaf cuticle, number of stomata on upper surface of the leaf, stomatal index and number of epidermal cells on upper surface of leaf. Three accessions SH2/1, KWT1/1 and SH1/1 showed high variation and appeared as the best genotypes based on morpho-anatomical characters examined in this study. These accessions should further be tested under a wide range of environmental stresses such as drought, salinity and high temperature, to find stress tolerant ecotypes. This may be propagated for the restoration of degraded rangelands of Cholistan