Seed Variability in Ber (Zizyphus Species) Collected from Different Localities of India

Abstract

Ber (ZiFphus mauritiana Lamk.) is grown under rainfed conditions in arid and semi-arid regions. It is becoming very popular because of its pleasant taste and nutritive value. The improved cultivars are budded on wild stocks. The rootstocks generally used are Zizyphus rotundifolia, Z. mauritiana var. Tikadi, Z. mauritiana var. Sukhawani, Z. mummularia, Z. spinichristii, Z. regosa, Z. xylocarpa andZ. oenplia (Chundawat and Shrivastava, 1978; Bankar and Prasad, 1992 and Annon, 2000). Seed size has been found to be under strong genetic influence that is mainly maternal. Seedweight and size offerarough approximation to the supply ofpotentialenergy available for the seedling