MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY OF WEEDY RICE ACCESSIONS COLLECTED IN AMPARA DISTRICT

Abstract

Weedy rice is becoming common in most rice growing areas in Sri Lanka. It is variable in almost all the vegetative and reproductive characteristics and tends to have low tillering ability, easy shattering, long awns and higher dormancy in some variants. In addition, weedy rice may contain important genes which can be incorporated into the cultivated varieties. In order to ascertain the diversity for its possible utilization in rice crop improvement, morphological characters of weedy rice accessions were observed in three locations in Ampara district. Characters were observed from 50 individuals with at least 5m distance between plants. A significant difference was observed in weedy rice plants observed at Thottama for plant height while at Lahugala significant differences were observed for tiller number (3.22) and number of panicles (2.54). 58% of observed panicles had awns and purple colored long awns were the most prominent. In addition, white colored long awns, purple colored medium sized awns and white colored medium sized awns were present. The plants observed at Thottama showed higher number of panicles from relatively shorter plants. The existence of great diversity in the morphology indicates the presence of other related agronomic, physiological aspects for their selection and adoption.