Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai-625 104, India.
Ten CMS lines were evaluated with the objective of studying variability for twelve floral characters influencing outcrossing. Among them, IR 68890A recorded significant mean values for eight characters,viz.,panicle length, stigma breadth, stigma area, pollen sterility, number of spikelets per panicle, spikelet fertility, percentage of panicle exsertion, and percentage of stigma exsertion. Maximum GCV was recorded for number of spikelets per panicle followed by percentage of stigma exsertion and stigma area. All characters exhibited high heritability except days to 50%flowering. High heritability and genetic advance for panicle length, angle of floret opening, stigma breadth, stigma area, pollen sterility, number of spikelets per panicle, style length and percentage of stigma revealed the role of additive gene action.
