Taxonomical characterization of mango genotypes using leaf morphological traits

Introduction

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) belongs to the family Anacardiaceae. It is also known as the "King of fruit", Choicest fruit of India, Pride of garden, National fruit of India. In India mango cultivated area is 24.07 lakh ha and production are 232.66 lakh MT (Anon., 2025) [1] . The major mango-growing states in India are Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana. The vast agroclimatic diversity across these regions has given rise to a wide variation of mango genotypes, each exhibiting distinct morphological traits. Mango is a perennial tree with a long juvenile phase of 5 to 10 years. Taxonomical identification and selection of mango genotypes might be challenging during the vegetative stage (Joshi et al., 2013) [2] . To make the identification process simple and accurate at an early stage, the vegetative characters of leaf can be used. Mango bears simple, clustered, alternate tristichous and petiolate leaves. Leaf structure generally does not change with age except its size and colour. Thus, leaves form a quite easy and reliable taxonomical trait that can be used to identify mango genotypes (Arora et al., 2024) [3] . Kalyan et al. (2012) [4] observed variation in foliage density, shape of lamina, leaf nature, leaf apex, the colour of young and matured leaves and arrangement of major veins which can be helpful in differentiation across mango cultivars. However, limited studies have been carried out on leaf morphological traits of mango genotypes. Such studies are not only important for the identification of species, but also to determine their genetic divergence. Therefore, the present investigation was conducted to determine the taxonomical characterization of mango genotypes using leaf morphological traits.

Materials and Methods

The present investigation was carried out during the year 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 on fifty mango genotypes of more than fifteen years age maintained by the Regional Horticultural Research Station, ASPEE College Horticulture, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari, Gujarat, India. During entire experiment, the data was collected of nine characters of leaf for fifty genotypes and three check varieties (Amrapali, Kesar and Sonpari) of mango to assess variability. Genotypes designated as MG-1 to MG-50 where MG represents Mango genotype. The qualitative characteristics of leaf was recorded as per the mango descriptor (Anon., 2006) [5] , while quantitative characteristics of leaf was analysed into descriptive statistics. Total ten leaf samples were taken randomly from all direction from each individual tree and used for characterization and evaluation for all parameters.

Results and Discussion

Leaf colour (young and fully develop) Leaf colour (young and fully develop) of each genotype was observed using mango descriptor (Anon., 2006) [5] and mentioned in Table 2 and Photo 1. It was recorded that leaf colours of all genotypes ranged from various colour including light green, brick red, coppery tan, light pink etc. which shows great variability in different genotypes of mango. It was observed reddish brown colour in three genotypes, light green with brownish tinge colour in 18 genotypes, light green colour in 17 genotypes, deep coppery tan colour in six genotypes, light brick red colour in two genotypes, light coppery tan colour in two genotypes, greenish brown colour and light pink colour in one genotype, respectively. In fully mature leaf, majority of genotypes (34) had dark green colour, 14 genotypes had green colour and two genotypes (MG-19 and MG-41) had pale green colour (Table 2).

Photo 1: Variation in young leaf colour of 5-10 days old in mango genotypes

The data recorded on leaf length is presented in Table 2. The maximum leaf length was recorded in MG-5 (33.20 cm), while minimum in MG-17 (10.05 cm). The average leaf length was 22.74 cm in overall 50 mango genotypes. The variation in leaf length among the genotype was attributed to genotype of the plant which might have been further modified by environmental influence and management factors. Similar results were reported Veena and Dinesh (2018) [6] , Igbari et al. (2019) [7] , Indian et al. (2020) [8] , Odunayo et al. (2022) [9] , Ruchika et al. (2023) [10] and Patel et al. (2024a) [11] in mango genotypes.

The data regarding leaf width was observed for different genotypes and shown in Table 2. The data revealed that significantly maximum leaf width was recoded in genotype MG-10 (7.93 cm) whereas, the minimum leaf width in genotype MG-19 (2.43 cm). The average leaf width was recorded 5.29 cm. Variation in leaf width among the genotypes were also reported by Ruchika et al. (2023) [10] , Arora et al. (2024) [3] and Patel et al. (2024a) [11] in mango genotypes.

Leaf blade shape

The shape of leaf blade for the mango genotypes falls into various groups viz., elliptic, oblong, ovate, obovate, lanceolate and oblanceolate. The types of leaf blade shape for the genotypes observed during the course of investigation were noted and presented in the Table 2 and Photo 2. Out of 50 genotypes and three check varieties, 38 were having oblong leaf blade shape, ten were having lanceolate shape, one having oblanceolate shape (MG-25), one having elliptic shape (MG-40) and three having ovate leaf blade shape (MG-4, MG-18 and MG-29). The present finding is in agreement with Raza et al. (2017) [12] , Igbari et al. (2019) [7] , Indian et al. (2020) [8] , Latheef et al. (2022) [13] , Arora et al. (2024) [3] , Patel (2024) [14] and Ansari et al. (2026) [15] in mango genotypes.

Leaf margin

Predominately entire leaf margin was recorded in 30 genotypes whereas, wavy leaf margin was recorded in 20 genotypes (Table 2 andPhoto 3). Similar work also reported by Raza et al. (2017) [12] , Patel (2024) [14] and Ansari et al. (2026) [15] in mango genotypes. Leaf apex (tip) shape Leaf apex shape was categorized as obtuse, acute and acuminate. It was observed that the 21 genotypes had acute apex shape, 31 had acuminate shape and one genotype had round leaf apex shape (Table 2 and Photo 4). Raza et al. (2017) [12] , Latheef et al. (2022) [13] , Ahmed and Mohamed (2023) [16] , Ruchika et al. (2023) [10] , Patel et al. (2024a) [11] and Ansari et al. (2026) [15] reported variation in leaf apex in mango germplasm.

Leaf base shape

Out of 50 genotypes, 42 genotypes had acute leaf base shape, five had obtuse base shape and three genotype (MG-4, MG-18 and MG-29) were in round leaf base shape (Table 2 and Photo 5). A significant variation in leaf base shape was also recorded earlier by Raza et al. (2017) [12] , Latheef et al. (2022) [13] , Ahmed and Mohamed (2023) [16] , Ruchika et al. (2023) [10] , Patel (2024) [14] and Ansari et al. (2026) [15] .

The significant difference in petiole length was recorded in different mango genotypes is depicted in Table 2. The longest petiole length (7.65 cm) was obtained in genotype MG-43, while the smallest petiole length (1.00 cm) was recorded in genotypes MG-19 and MG-31. Patel et al. (2024a) [11] reported petiole length from 3.34 to 6.33 cm in mango genotypes from South Gujarat.

Leaf attitude in relation to branch: Leaf attitude in relation to branch having three categories in 42 genotypes were having horizontal type leaf attitude in relation to branch, six genotypes were having semi-erect leaf attitude in relation to branch, while two genotypes (MG-27 and MG-33) were having semi-drooping type leaf attitude in relation to branch (Table 2). The significant variation among the genotypes for leaf characteristics could be due to the genetic constitution of particular variety, interaction with environmental factors, cultivation practices and the developmental stage of the plant. The results revealed that mango leaves showed high variability in shape, size and even colour, as a fact also reported by Singh et al. (2025) [17] in mango. The present finding is in agreement with (Rymbai et al., 2015) [18] , Raza et al. (2017) [12] , Veena and Dinesh (2018) [6] , Igbari et al. (2019) [7] , Indian et al. (2020) [8] , Latheef et al. (2022) [13] , Odunayo et al. (2022) [9] , Ahmed and Mohamed (2023) [16] , Ruchika et al. (2023) [10] , Arora et al. (2024) [3] , Patel (2024) [14] , Patel et al. (2024a) [11] and Ansari et al. (2026) [15] in mango genotype.

Conclusion

The current study indicated that the fifty mango genotypes have showed significant differences in leaf morphological traits. The wide variation was observed in leaf colour, leaf length, leaf width, leaf blade shape, leaf margin, leaf apex shape, leaf base shape, petiole length and leaf attitude in relation to branch. It will help the farmers and breeders for an early and easy selection and identification of suitable genotypes for promoting their cultivation and making use for further breeding programme.

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