Agro-Morphological Evaluation of Gamma Irradiated Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis, Jacq.) M<sub>2</sub> Population at the Nursery Stage

Morphological characterization is one of the steps that are considered important in the description and classification of cultivated crops. A field evaluation of gamma irradiated oil palm second generation (M2) progenies was carried out at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Oil Palm Research Institute (CSIR-OPRI), Kusi, Ghana. This experiment aimed to determine the agro-morphological performances of M2 population at the nursery stage. The entries were made up of eight (8) M2 progenies and a control, using randomized complete block design with three replications. Data were collected on plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, butt circumference, chlorophyll content of the leaves and stomatal conductance. All the characters studied exhibited significant (P < 0.05) variability among genotypes. The mean value (58.45 cm) of plant height for all the M2 progenies studied was 24% lower than that of the check (76.86 cm) and this is an indication of suspected dwarf trait which can be useful in crop improvement programmes. Progeny 14 performed significantly better in leaf production (9.60) and butt circumference (13.24 cm). The performance of progeny 15 was high with respect to leaf area (2135 cm2) and chlorophyll content (32.93 ug/g) while progeny 16 exhibited low stomatal conductance (5.90 m2s/mol), an indication of low transpiration rate and possible drought traits could be exploited in the development of drought tolerant materials.