Genetic divergence in castor

Genetic divergence was assessed in 40 genotypes using D² statistics. Clustering pattern showed no parallelism between genetic and geographic diversity. Among the character studied plant height, effective length of primary spike, 100 seed weight and total number of capsules showed higher divergence. The maximum inter-cluster distance was observed between cluster X and IV, followed by cluster VII and X, cluster IV and III, cluster III and X. Cluster VII showed lowest cluster mean for days to 50% flowering and days to maturity and highest for effective length of secondary spike, number of capsules on secondary spike and oil content. Cluster IX showed maximum mean for number of capsules on primary spike, total number of capsules and seed yield per plant, Cluster III, VI and VIII possessed highest cluster mean value for effective length of primary spike, 100 seed weight and effective length of tertiary spike respectively.