Genetic Diversity in Opium Poppy

The multivariate analyses of divergence among seventy-five varieties of opium poppy for ten developmental characteristics showed grouping of cultivars into 12 clusters. Five clusters had 40,11, 6, 5 and 3 varieties; three clusters comprised 2, and 4 clusters had one variety each, suggesting that these four varieties diversed most from others. Based on cluster means, characters such as leaf number, leaf size, capsule size, and opium yield were major factors of differentiation among these 75 varieties. The intercluster D² values ranged from 156.87 to 510001.5, suggesting very little domestication in this crop. The opium yielding cultivars can thus be utilized for hybridization programme for selection of large capsule size and leaf in the progeny. Inter se crosses at F2 level would give new recombinants for further selection.