Malik, T.P.Sengupta, Debabrata2016-11-092016-11-092011http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/84730A study was conducted on “Characterization of fenugreek cultivars/genotypes by field and laboratory techniques” to identify ninety four genotypes under study by plant morphological traits, chemical tests for variety identification and preparation of schimatic diagram on the basis of useful traits having wide variation. Plant morphological characters like plant growth habit, leaf tip, number of pods per plant, yield per plant (g) were found to be the most important diagnostic characters for cultivar identification in fenugreek. Some seed morphological characters like test weight, seed colour, seed luster and seed size were also found helpful to differentiate the fenugreek cultivars. The genotypes were also categorized on the basis of field emergence, day to 50% flowering, plant height, number of primary branches, number of secondary branches, leaf margin pigmentation and leaf serration. However, these traits cannot be reffered as reliable traits for identification of genotypes due to their limited genetic variation. The differential response of fenugreek genotypes to different chemical tests such as phenol test, modified phenol test-A, modified phenol test-B, and potassium hydroxide test was found to be very effective for genotype identification. The schematic diagram on the basis of some important morphological traits has higher resolution in terms of differentiating among genotypes. The schematic diagrams based on seed and chemical test are also very useful for identification of genotypes. Field keys were prepared for each and every genotypes on the basis of some highly heritable characters with wide variability. This field keys has a pivotal role to identify genotypes in the field without any use of coastly chemicals and are fairly comparable with their results. However, for more precise and accurate identification the modern biotechnological tools like DNA finger printing and molecular marker techniques can also be exploited.enDna, Immunological techniques, Meat, vegetables, Plant extracts, Ecosystems, Physical control, Biological development, tca, Genetic structuresThesis