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Two species of genus Luffa, namely L. cylindrica and L. acutangula have been analyzed during the present study for the details of morphological and meiotic variability. While the former is found only in cultivation, the latter is cultivated on a small scale and also grows in wild in Jammu district of J&K state (India). These species match in their gross morphology and in having a diploid chromosome number of 2n=26. Of the two, L. acutangula is more efficient in its meiotic system displaying minimum abnormalities and showing higher pollen viability (70.64 %) as compared to L. cylindrica which has slightly abnormal meiosis resulting in lower pollen viability (30.34 %). Inspite of this low pollen viability, L .cylindrica is reproductively much efficient than L. acutangula in terms of % age fruit and seed set and fruit size. Latter lags behind because of some disadvantages in reproductive features including size of flower, time of anthesis, availability of pollinators and rewards offered. All these factors lead to limited pollen transfer resulting in dip in reproductive efficiency.

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