Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is an iridaceous cormose geophyte. Its stigmatic lobes constitute saffron, which is used in flavouring food dishes and manufacturing perfumes, dyes and biomedicines. Flavour, fragrance, and colour and are attributed to the presence of some constituents like picrocrocin, a glycoside; safranal, an aglycone obtained from picrocrocin; and crocin and its hydrolysed product crocetin, respectively. Kashmir is the only region producer of saffron in India. Kashmiri saffron is qualitatively superior to others, but its yield is minor in comparison with Spanish or Iranian strains. Low yield is mainly due to primitive agronomic practices but also partly due to non-availability of high yielding strains. All allies of genus Crocus are diploid but C. sativus is triploid in genetic makeup (2n=3x=24). Due to triploidy, meiosis in C. sativus is highly erratic and genetically unbalanced gametes are formed, which lead to formation of sterile gametes and ultimately no sexuality is involved that is essential phenomenon for seed formation. Due to absence of sexuality in the existing strains, a non-conventional breeding programme at Govt. Fruit Research Centre Pithoragarh, located at 5,000 feet height from sea level in mid hills of Uttaranchal, where temperate climate is available, was carried out by irradiating C. sativus corms to develop putative mutants of economical use. Corms were subjected to different does of Co-60 to induce variability. Six sets of saffron consisting of 100 uniform corms of 4-5 cm in diameter were irradiated with 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 krad doses of gamma rays. A set of 100 corms was planted as control. Variability with respect to sprouting time, plant height, induction of flowering, number of petals and shape of petals was noted. Corms of identified mutants were harvested separately and these mutant lines were advanced to next generations to bring them true to type. Delayed sprouting and slow growth in higher doses (2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 krad) increase of plant height in lower doses (0.5 and 1.0 krad), decrease is higher doses (2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 krad), and induction of flowering in middle doses (1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 krad) was noted. On evaluating the variants, serrated petal mutants were found to be superior than parental strain and other mutants with respect to days of flowering (68 days), size of flower (4.87 cm), length of stigma (2.91 cm) and weight of 100 fresh stigmas (0.608 g) Delayed sprouting, slow growth in higher doses, increase and decrease of plant height in lower and higher doses respectively is due to the amount of auxin synthesized during the course of sprouting. Development of serrated petal is the result of a somatic gene mutation, whereas fused petal is the result of inhibition of apical cell division of petal at initial stage of flower development, caused by irradiation.
