Genetic Divergence in Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)

Fifty-eight sunflower genotypes along with three checks were evaluated for obtaining information regarding genetic divergence through Mahalanobis' D² statistic. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all the traits. The 61 genotypes were grouped into 19 clusters, where cluster I accommodated maximum number of entries (29). The inter-cluster distance was maximum between cluster XIV and XIX followed by cluster V and XIX and cluster XVIII and XIX. Based on inter-cluster distance and per se performance of genotypes, four entries viz. EC 376211, EC 399318, RHA 344 and BLC-P6 were selected which could be intercrossed to obtain high heterotic crosses and also to recover desirable transgressive segregants.