Floral and Morphological Characterization of Old Tea Genetic Resources in Hakgala Botanic Garden, Sri Lanka

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-646-3_5How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Germplasm Conservation; Phenotypic Variation; Old Seedling Tea; Floral characterization; Morphological Characterization

Abstract

To overcome the narrow genetic diversity in commercial tea cultivations, it is essential to introduce new genetic resources into the existing germplasm. The Hakgala Botanic Garden (6.54°N, 80.40°E) in Sri Lanka harbors a valuable collection of ancient tea genetic resources, comprising approximately 150 unique introduced tea accessions. A study was conducted to assess the phenotypic diversity of these resources and identify unique genotypes for conservation and utilization in plant breeding. A comprehensive investigation was carried out on the old seedling tea (OST) population at Hakgala Botanic Garden using 15 morphological descriptors and 17 floral descriptors. Morphological characterization revealed significant heterogeneity among the OST genotypes. Diversity indices, including Shannon’s index and evenness values, indicated notable phenotypic differentiation, with internode length showing the highest diversity (H’ = 1.22). A Neighbor-Joining (NJ) tree based on morphological data grouped the genotypes into three major clusters, with several OST accessions displaying morphological similarities to reference tea cultivars. Floral characterization showed a significant variation in certain floral characteristics, such as stigma position and style length. Three accessions, HKG63, HKG1, and HKG53, displayed unique floral morphologies and, hence, came out as distinct clusters. The possibility of using these special accessions in breeding programs is strengthened by these phenotypic differences. These findings highlight the significance of the Hakgala OST population as a reservoir of untapped genetic diversity. The study identifies several genotypes as promising candidates for future tea breeding and conservation efforts, contributing to the sustainable utilization of Sri Lanka’s tea genetic resources.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Nishadi Dayarathna
AU  - Erandini Ambalampitiya
AU  - Mahasen Ranatunga
AU  - Renuka Attanayake
AU  - Muditha Meegahakumbura
AU  - Prathibha Jayaweera
AU  - Jeevan Kottawa-Arachchi
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/15
TI  - Floral and Morphological Characterization of Old Tea Genetic Resources in Hakgala Botanic Garden, Sri Lanka
BT  - Proceedings of the International Tea Symposium (InTSym100 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 57
EP  - 70
SN  - 2468-5747
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-646-3_5
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-646-3_5
ID  - Dayarathna2026
ER  -