1ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Regional Station, Katrain, Kullu-Valley-175129, Himachal Pradesh
2Division of Floriculture and Landscaping, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi-110012
The present investigation was carried at ICAR-IARI Regional Station, Katrain, Kullu, HP during 2019-2020. The experimental material consists of nineteen genotypes of Lisianthus viz.: Ktlis-11, Ktlis-12, Ktlis-8, Ktlis-14, Ktlis-19, Ktlis-15, Ktlis-17, Ktlis-1, Ktlis-5, Ktlis18, Ktlis-16, Ktlis-2, Ktlis-6, Ktlis-20, Ktlis-21, Ktlis-13, Ktlis-7, Ktlis-10 and Ktlis-9) maintained at the Station. The genotype Ktlis-1 exhibited maximum plant height (90.60 cm) and leaf area (38.28 cm2), while stem thickness (7.60 mm) and total number of flowers per plant (33.67) was observed maximum in the genotype Ktlis-20. In the meanwhile, number of petals per flower (32.00), bud length (5.63 cm) and flower diameter (7.68 cm) was recorded highest in the genotype Ktlis-11 and Ktlis-13, respectively. The Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis revealed a significant positive correlation of plant height with number of flowers/stem (0.53) and total number of flowers/plant (0.72); stem thickness with leaf area (0.56); number of flowers/stem with total number of flowers/plant (0.66); bud length with flower diameter (0.59) and leaf area (0.61) and flower diameter with leaf area (0.49) and number of petals per flower (0.66). Based on the principal component analysis (PCA), the three components having eigen values greater than one was retained in the analysis because of the substantial amount of variation amongst them (71.89%). Further, loading of different traits based on two principal components indicated that plant height, stem thickness, bud length, flower diameter, leaf area, number of petals per flower, number of flowers/stem, and total number of flowers/plant are the main components of divergence between nineteen genotypes of lisianthus, whereas contribution of rest of traits under study was found comparatively less in divergence. Hence, main emphasis should be given on these traits for improvement in lisianthus. Further, dendrogram constructed using average linkage revealed that based on the trait of interest to be improved distantly placed genotypes can be selected as parental lines for the development of heterotic hybrids in lisianthus for cut flower production.
Dendrogram, Lisianthus, Pearson's correlation, Principal component analysis
