Clonal Characterization of Teasle Gourd: Flowering and Bearing Behaviour, Fruit Yield Components and Fruit Quality Traits

The teasle gourd (Momordica subangulata ssp. renigera) is essentially a native of tropical regions of Asia with extensive distribution in China, Japan, South East Asia, Polynesia besides tropical Africa and South America. India is the secondary centre of diversity of many introduced vegetables including teasle gourd. The fruits are regarded as highly nutritious. Teasle gourd has become a major vegetable in Bangladesh because of the high export potential and demand in the internal market. The present investigation has been outlined with the objectives to initiate improvement approaches of teasle gourd: investigation on the floral biology and crossability of both male and female clones, in vitro germinability of pollens in different mediums, characterization of the female clones with the inclusion of growth, fruit characters and fruit quality traits, determination of genetic variability and associationship for different characters and effect of growth chemicals on the expression of flowering in the female clones.