The mature and healthy fruits of Luffa cylindrica were collected from its plant grown in Gulshan-e-Maymar, Karachi. The fruits were studied for their size, brood size and seed characteristics. The brood size was highly variable and varied from 203 to 734 seeds per fruit. Mean single seed weight (MSSW) was found to vary amongst the fruits significantly. A large number of seeds (49.7%) had seed weight larger than 100 mg and 42.5% seeds had seed weight between 90-100 mg. Around 5.2% of seeds were smaller in size (≤ 50 mg) and 2.1% seeds were very small with ≤ 20 mg of weight. Large number of seeds concentrated around the mean value (97.32 ± 0.71mg). The weight of the smallest seed in a fruit was found to relate with seed weight variability in a fruit (% coefficient of variability) inversely through a negative power model with an exponent value of – 0.73236. That is to say that the inclusion of smaller seed (s) in a fruit enhanced the variability of seed weight in a fruit of L. cylindrica. Such a variation in seed weights in a fruit was lower when minimum weight of seed in a fruit fall between 70-80 mg. There is great degree of variation of seeds size within a fruit or among the fruits of Luffa cylindrica. The seeds showed no dormancy of any kind and germinated rapidly. Seedling appeared to be Panerocotylar, epigeal and foliaceous type. Hypocotyl was characterized with collet. Cotyledons and leaves were amphistomatic and had several types of trichomes on both surfaces (amphitrichomatic). There were few extrafloral nectaries on the ventral surface of leaf of the seedling. The arrangement of subsidiaries around stomatal pore was anomocytic and tetracytic. Stomata often appeared in clusters with common subsidiaries. The anticlinal walls of dorsal foliar epidermal cells were straight but sinuous in case of ventral foliar epidermis.
D. Khan, Muhammad Javed Zaki, Shumaila Moin. (2017) SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS CHARACTERISTICS OF SPONGE GOURD (LUFFA CYLINDRICA (L.) ROEM.), , Volume 14, Issue 3.
