Genetic divergence analysis among explored germplasm and selected varieties in lathyrus (Lathyrus sativus L.)

In present study, genetic divergence was analyzed among 44 germplasms explored and collected from Bhandara, Gondia, Gadchiroli and Chandrapur districts of eastern Vidarbha of Maharashtra along with 13 selected varieties. Mahalanobis generalized distance for eight characters was used to study the genetic divergence. The analysis of dispersion for eight correlated variables using Wilk's criterion, revealed highly significant difference between genotypes for aggregate of the eight characters. The 57 genotypes were grouped into eight clusters by Tocher's method. The maximum inter cluster distance was recorded between cluster IV and cluster VIII (110.67). The canonical analysis indicated that the plant height at maturity, pods plant-¹, yield plant-¹, days to 50% flowering, seeds pod⁻¹, number of primary branches and days to maturity were significant and important sources of variation in the Vector I, in vector II primary branches, days to maturity, days to 50% flowering were important source of variation. In vector in days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, number of seeds pod⁻¹ and 100 seed weight were important source of variation. The genotypes belonging to distant cluster and exhibiting high performance in the desirable direction for plant height, yield plant-¹, days to 50% flowering and pods plant-¹ were identified as the potential parents for hybridization programme.