17 M. M. Q. Baig T. Ahmad1 I. A. Hafiz N. A. Abbasi M. J. Tareen Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences JAPS 20162016/12/01 26 6 1666-1674 1018-7081 NA <p>Flower size and color variation are the main attributes in the floriculture industry that affect the consumers demand.&nbsp;<em>Rosa gruss an teplitz</em>&nbsp; and&nbsp;<em>Rosa centifolia</em>&nbsp;are the fragrant rose species&nbsp; known for their &nbsp;wonderful aesthetic beauty. However, they are limited in use due to their small sized flowers and no color variegation. In order to &nbsp;improve&nbsp; characters in rose species, shoot tips taken from micropropagated plants were incubated for three different periods of 5, 7 and 11 days in MS medium containing different levels (0,100, 150, 300 and 450 mg l-1) of colchicine.&nbsp;<em>Rosa gruss an teplitz</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Rosa centifolia</em>&nbsp;yielded maximum&nbsp; plant height (15.12 and 17.23cm), number of nodes (4.80 and 6.93), internodal distance (3.15 and 2.48 cm), leaf area (5.26 and 10.50 cm2)&nbsp;&nbsp; and flower size (6.24 and 5.78cm) respectively at colchicine level of 450 mg l-1 with incubation period of 11days. Colchicine also induced variegation and variation in flowers of&nbsp;<em>Rosa gruss an teplitz</em>. Genetic variation was analyzed and dendrogram was developed to assess the relationship with parent material. &nbsp;The findings of this work add to the ongoing efforts to improve the characters through induction of mutation in rose flowers.</p> Rosa gruss an teplitz, Rosa centifolia, colchicine, RAPD, variation Pakistan Agricultural Scientists Forum https://thejaps.org.pk/AbstractView.aspx?mid=2016-JAPS-219