Evaluation of gaillardia (Gaillardia pulchella Foug.) for flowering, quality and yield parameters

A field experiment was conducted to find out variation in gaillardia (Gaillardia pulchella Foug.) germplasm collected from different parts of the country and to evaluate them for various horticultrally important traits. Seeds of 20 variants were sown and transplanted at experimental unit of Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, Kittur Rani Channamma College of Horticulture, Arabhavi, during 2012 to 2013 for this study. Experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications and observation was recorded in monthly intervals. Significant variation was observed among gaillardia germplasm for all growth and flowering parameters attributes. The wide variation on plant height (48.00 cm to 84.67), plant spread (42.9 cm to 70.83 cm), number of branches (13.52 to 24.48), number of leaves (127.40 to 295.00), leaf area (16.88 to 44.41dm²), stem girth (1.2 to 1.8 cm), chlorophyll'a ’(0.22 to 0.97 mg/g), chlorophyll'b ’(0.04 to 0.75 mg/g), total chlorophyll (0.49 to 1.71 mg/g), days taken for first flowering (34.29 to 62.78 days), days taken for 50 per cent flowering (75.19 to 102.47 days), duration of flowering (109.76 to 148.00 days), number of whorls (1.00 to 12.10), number of petals/flower (18.70 to 154.63), flower diameter (4.90 to 7.16 cm) and individual flower weight (1.42 to 4.70 g) were recorded.