Compound inflorescence cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton) in India

Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton) is an important spice crop of India and valued for its dried capsules. Regular surveys are being undertaken by Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR), Appangala, Karnataka, India for collecting the variable germplasm of cardamom. At present 436 cardamom accessions collected from cardamom growing tracts of South India are conserved in field gene bank. Among the collections, 23 accessions with varied branching pattern were assembled during explorations and characterized for 16 plant, panicle and capsule characters during 2003-2005. The coefficient of variation was greatest for yield per plant (77.94%) followed by branches per panicle (49.40%) and minimum for dry recovery per cent (7.73%). Two accessions, IC 547214 and IC 349544 were identified as promising with desirable yield contributing characters. The accessions, IC 349553 with extensive branching at the proximal end of the panicle and IC 547180 with dark green capsules even after drying were found to be unique. All the characterized accessions are maintained under ex situ cardamom gene bank of IISR.