Spices and Condiments (1+1)

Species and varieties

Species/varieties

• There are a large number of varieties and races differing in size, odour and taste of the fruits, and they are hardly distinguishable from one another. They are regarded as races, varieties or subspecies of F. vulgare. The varieties which yield commercially important volatile oils are reduced generally to the subspecies Capillaceum and placed under the distinct varieties: vulgare giving bitter fennel and var. Dulce producing sweet fennel oil. The variety dulce is mainly cultivated in India, while vulgare is cultivated in Russia, Romania, Hungary, Germany, France, Italy and in South Europe. The genetic resources holding in this crop in India is 420.
• PF-35, S-7-`9, Guj. Fennel-1, Guj. Fennel-2, RF-125, RF-101, Rajendra Sourabha, Azad Sauf-1, Pant Madhurika and CO-1 are some of the varieties of fennel released through the All India Coordinated Research Project on Spices. The varieties S-7-9, PF-35 and Guj. Fennel-1 are of long duration and can be grown as a transplanted or directly seeded crop and give 20% more yield than the local variety. The local variety, UF-32 (Lucknow type) is identified as best for edible purposes. The yield potential of the released varieties is as follows.

Variety	Grain yield (kg/ha)	States of cultivation
S-7-9	1000	Gujarat
PF-35	1280	Gujarat
Guj. Fennel-1	1700	Gujarat
Guj. Fennel-2	1940	Gujarat
CO-1	570	Tamil Nadu