Plant Tissue Cult. 11(2) : 97-105, 2001 (December)

Field Performance of Somaclonal Variants of Tissue Culture-derived Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.)

Abdelrahman S. AL-Wasel

King Saud University, Department of Horticulture and Forestry, P.O. Box-1482, Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia
E-mail: awasel@yahoo.com

Key words: Phoenix dactylifera, Floral abnormality, Dwarfism, Somaclonal variants

Abastract

Somaclonal variants arose among populations of tissue culture-derived date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) trees of Barhee and Khalas cultivars. Dwarfism and abnormal floral development were found to be common. In Barhee 12 - 18% trees were dwarf with packed leaves around their trunk, whereas Khalas cultivar exhibited 18 - 24.3% dwarf trees with packed leaves. Average height of dwarf trees of both cultivars varied from 36.1 - 102.7 cm after four years of transplantation while the height of normal trees during that period varied from 152.6 - 214.3 cm. Leaves with albino stripes in their mid ribs and albino and variegated leaflets were also observed in Khalas cultivars with a frequency of 0.25 - 1%. A large number (59 - 86%) of mature trees of Barhee in all plantations failed to set fruits in comparison to normal tissue culture-derived trees or offshoot-derived trees of the same cultivar. Supernumerary carpels (4, 5 and 6) developed with frequency 7.8 - 16.9, 2.4 - 7.7 and 0.7 - 3.5% for 4, 5 and 6 carpels, respectively. Very low frequency (1.5 - 5.6%) of twisted spikelets also occurred.

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