Abstract
For the perfume industry, Rosa damascena is the most important species used in the production of rose attar which is made by distilling volatile oils from the petals of flowers. It is also used widely in the production of rose water, a flavoring agent. Other species like R. gallica L., R. centifolia L., R. bourboniana and Gruss an Teplitz also exhibit the fragrance that is sought by perfumeries in the world. Eight landraces of Damask rose along with related Rosa species were collected from Punjab province and evaluated to determine the diversity on the basis of morphology and oil yield. The investigated characters were flower weight, flower diameter, peduncle length, number of petals, number of stamens and oil content. Pearson's coefficients showed a negative association of flower weight with peduncle length (r = -0.3348) and a positive and strong correlation was observed for flower weight with the all other morphological characters. Flower diameter showed a positive but weak correlation with peduncle length, number of petals and number of stamens with the values of r = 0.0733, r = 0.5302 and r = 0.1241, respectively. Oil content (%) was measured from the Rosa species by using Soxhlet extractor with N-hexane. R. damascena landrace from Choha Syedan Shah produced the highest oil content of absolute oil (0.147%) on petal basis while the lowest value for absolute oil content was 0.36% from R. indica. Dendrogram created by cluster analysis for morphological characters, indicated no relationship of genetic variation with their collection sites. This study has revealed that the selection of landraces for their specific characteristic could be possible for future breeding program. It also provides practical information for the future collection of Damask rose germplasm and breeding program.