In this study, the role of various palladium precursors for morphology selective synthesis of palladium nanomaterials in aqueous medium was investigated. Based on the different types of palladium precursors, we achieved the formation of rod shaped, spherical and fern leaflike morphologies of Pd nanomaterials. The reaction time for the synthesis of Pd nanostructures is relatively less as compared to the other existing methods. These Pd nanomaterials were characterized using X-ray diffractometer (XRD), field emission gun -scanning electron microscopy (FEG-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. The XPS analysis confirms that Pd(II) was completely reduced to Pd(0) state. Furthermore the application of as synthesized Pd nanomaterials was tested for Suzuki cross -coupling reaction and it provides good catalytic activity for Suzuki reaction with the reusability of nanocatalyst. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.