Possibility of utilizing Inter Simple Sequence Repeat regions, bark powder morphology and floral morphometry to characterize the <em>Cinnamomum</em> species in Sri Lanka

The genus Cinnamomum of the family Lauraceae is an economically important crop. Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum syn. C. zeylanicum) has exceptional position in global market. In addition to cultivated species, Sri Lanka home seven endemic wild capparu-coronde, citriodorum, dubium, litseifolium, ovalifolium, rivulorum, and sinharajaense. Nevertheless, species delimitation not been successful with some morphometric molecular traits. Therefore, this study focused on characterization Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) nuclear marker, floral characteristics, microscopy powered bark reported Lanka. According results four polymorphic ISSR regions resulted average 83.7% polymorphism among all collected suggesting considerable polymorphism. fiber size different from studied could be used as a key identify adulterants during export. cinnamon, two (C. sinharajaense, capparu-coronde) have considerably larger flowers compared other species. Moreover, traits such flower colour shape differentiate sinharajaense capparu-coronde. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SCM) pollen showed that size, spine length, interspinal distance, ornamentation significantly contribute variation, variations need comprehensively. phylogeny completely resolved using regions, powder morphology, morphological assessed suggested for further studies.