Virescence pisifera (Male Parent of Oil Palm Hybrid)

Salient features
• One pisifera palm with virescens fruit form was developed from exotic germplasm accessions. The unfertilized fruits are albescence and remaining fruits apparently open-pollinated ones of varying maturity and weight ranging from 1 to 5 g.
• The stylar end of fruits either dark green or orange with pedicellar ends creamy white or yellow.
• Orange fruits yield 89% oil.
• It has large peduncle with 75 cm per year height increment and frond production of 25 numbers per year.
• It has frond length of 7.5 m with fresh and dry weight of 12 and 4 kg, respectively.

Performance
• Fully grown palm tree yields 134 kg/year.

Impact and benefits
• Reported Virescence is considered as valuable genetic resource because it possesses bright orange fruit, which is ideal for easy identification of harvestable maturity. Moreover, Virescence fruit form in pisifera is a very rare occurrence.
• The virescence fruits are quite conspicuously green when unripe and change to bright orange upon ripening.
• Virescence fruit forms are extensively used for developing varieties with homozygous Virescence tenera.