Morphological variation of 20 local rice cultivars of East Kalimantan

Abstract

Handayani F, Sumarmiyati, Ahmadi NR. 2016. Morphological variation of 20 local rice cultivars of East Kalimantan. Pros Sem Nas Masy Biodiv Indon 3: 88-93. High diversity of local rice is very important in rice breeding program as a gene pool for valuable traits such as resistance to specific disease and tolerance against environmental stresses (Al, Fe, acidity, etc). East Kalimantan is a province which has so many local rice cultivars either lowland, upland or tidal swamp rice. Unfortunately, there is still limited scientific information about local rice genetic diversity in East Kalimantan, whereas it is an important basic information for rice breeding program. The aim of this research was to study the morphological variation of 20 local rice cultivars from some regions in East Kalimantan. The research was conducted at Lempake trial field, Samarinda in April-September 2016. The result showed that the cultivars had variability in morphological characters. Plant profile was medium to high while some tillers were little and very little. The color of lemma and palea was yellowish straw in 17 cultivars while the rest had brown lines in yellowish straw background. Seed length ranged between 7.3-9.6 mm, while seed width ranged between 1.9-3.3 mm, and seed thickness ranged between 1.5-2.1 mm. The shape of the rice grain varied between medium grain (length: width = 2.1-3.0) or long grain (length: width > 3.0).