Colchicine induced alterations in plant architecture of common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench)

Colchicine treatment was used to create and characterize phenotypic variation in common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench), with emphasis on plant architecture and cytological traits. Seeds ofcultivar VL-7 were treated with 0.05% colchicine for 8 and 12h, and the resulting C₁ population wasscreened for conspicuous morphological variation. Fifteen distinct plants were selected and categorizedinto five phenotypic groups: dwarf, highly branched, tall, thick-stemmed, and broad-leaved variants.Among the selected variants, plant height ranged from 17 to 153 cm, compared with 107cm in theuntreated control. Stem diameter of the thick-stemmed variants ranged from 3.70 to 4.10 cm, comparedwith 1.70 cm in the control, while leaf area of the broad-leaved variants ranged from 23.93 to 25.17cm², compared with 19.80cm² in the control. DW1 represented a distinct dwarf phenotype, attaining aheight of 17cm and reaching maturity in 46 days compared with 52 days in the control, whereas TL1was the tallest accession (153 cm). BR1, BR2, and BR3 exhibited increased primary branching, whereasTS1, TS2, and TS3 showed pronounced stem thickening. BL1, BL2, BL3, and BL4 exhibited broader leaves than the control. No evident differences in pollen morphology were observed between theselected accessions and the control. Cytological studies showed that all selected plants were diploid(2n=16), and stable chromosome doubling was not observed. These results demonstrate that colchicinetreatment was associated with substantial morphological diversity in the C₁ generation despite the absence of confirmed chromosome doubling. The selected plants therefore represent colchicine-associated phenotypic variants rather than confirmed polyploids.