A Preliminary Analysis of Characters of Rice Panicles

The panicle characters of 8 rice varieties which have same primary branches were analyzed. The results are as follows: A close loop of grain yield per plant, panicle number per plant and grain weight per panicle was formed and the three yield components were correlated by way of total length of primary branches and panicle length. The distributions of grain number on primary branches, unfilled spikelets and grain weights were uniform at all nodal points of panicle axis and the differences of distributions were not distinct among the varieties. The superior part of distribution of the primary branch length were divided into three types: middle-lower panicle, middle panicle and middle-upper panicle. The numbers of secondary branches and grains showed that the distributions were like shuttles and their maximum values occured on middle or middle-low part of the panicles. The seed setting rate of secondary branches of upper panicles was more than that of middle part, and even more than that of lower part.