Genetic divergence in gladiolus

Hundred and one genotypes of gladiolus were evaluate during kharif 1996 in a randomized block design with two replications, to assess the genetic diversity and variability. The mean sums of squares were highly significant for all the 13 characters studied, indicating the presence of variability. The genotypes studied were grouped into eighteen clusters. Among the eighteen clusters, Cluster-I was largest with 28 genotypes, followed by Cluster-II (16), Cluster-IV (12), Cluster-VI (10), Cluster-V (8) and Cluster-Ill (6). The maximum intra-cluster distance was exhibited by genotypes of the Cluster-VI, while the lowest by the genotypes of the Cluster XI to XVIII. The inter-cluster distance was highest between the Cluster-IV and Cluster-XI. The traits, number and weight of corms and cormels/plant, rachis length and interfloret length contributed considerably to divergence. In the divergence class analysis, all the clusters were grouped in DC2 and DC3 suggesting that intermating between the high per se performance genotypes from each cluster will more heterotic as compared to others. On the basis of performance of different genotypes of eighteen clusters, twenty-eight genotypes were identified as potent parents for hybridization.