Abstract

Studies were carried out in Desmanthus virgatus cv. TNDV 1 to assess the duration of pod and seed development with physical, physiological and biochemical indices in two crops viz. crop raised from seed and the crop raised after first cutting of seed crop (after 180 days). The study revealed that physical characters of pod and seed and physiological and biochemical characters of seed vary with maturation and attained physiological maturity 30-35 days after anthesis (DAA) in both the crops. But delayed harvest lead to total loss of seed due to shattering. The seeds remained hard (100%) during developmental period and were germinable only after acid scarification for 15 minutes @ 200 ml per kg of seed.

Keywords: Desmanthus, Seed, Development and maturation, Pod and seed characters, Shattering.