Studies on genetic diversity and cluster analysis of different carnation genotypes

The present study was carried out with 50 genotypes of carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) which were evaluated to assess the genetic diversity during 2012–2014 for three flushes in a completely randomized block design with three replications. The genetic divergence of the genotypes was studied by using Mahalanobis D² analysis using Tocher's method. The 50 genotypes were grouped into 5 clusters revealing the presence of diversity for different growth and flowering traits. Among which, maximum number of 16 genotypes was accommodated in cluster III, followed by cluster V accommodating 15 genotypes, cluster IV having 10 genotypes, cluster II having 8 genotypes, whereas, cluster I consists of only one genotype. The genotypes falling in the same cluster are more closely related than those belonging to another cluster. The divergence at inter and intra cluster level revealed the highest inter cluster distance (8.426) between cluster-I and cluster-IV, whereas, the lowest (2.944) was found between cluster-II and cluster-IV. The intra cluster distance was maximum in cluster-III (3.036) followed by cluster-V (2.910) and minimum in cluster-I (0.001) followed by cluster-II (2.442). The diversity observed within and between the clusters can be utilized in breeding of carnation varieties/hybrids for desirable traits. Thus, genetic divergence can also be used as an indirect parameter in selecting parents to produce heterotic high yielding progenies.