Genetic Divergence and Gene Source Studies in Terminalia arjuna Bedd.

Studies on genetic divergence for 19 parameters were conducted with 50 accessions of Terminalia arjuna. Analysis of variance showed difference among accessions for all the traits studied. Based on the relative value of the magnitude of divergence value all the accessions were grouped into 9 clusters. Intra cluster distance was maximum for cluster VI (3.27) followed by 3.21 in cluster IV. The maximum inter cluster distance was 24.60 between cluster V and VI indicating high genetic divergence among accessions of these two groups. Maximum contribution towards the divergence was 44.73% by proline followed by protein (38.94%), reducing sugar (5.31%) and non-reducing sugar (3.76%). Gene sources for higher lamina length (Acc. 225); lamina width (IC 382333); low internodal distance (IC 410837), high protein (IC 560422) and low phenol (IC 3263888) were identified for future improvement programme.