Genetic variation of Dahlia cultivars evaluated in sub-tropical Himalayas and path coefficient analysis of flowering and vegetative characters

Dahlia is a popular bulbous ornamental plant being used as bedding plant, pot plant and for cut flowers. Under sub-montane, sub tropical conditions, 24 cultivars of Dahlia variabilis L. were planted in randomized complete block design and their flowering and vegetative growth characters were evaluated and genetic and phenotypic variance were estimated using ANOVA. Phenotypic and genetic coefficients of variation were recorded maximum for leaf area (34.5% and 33.5%) implies that variability is mostly controlled by the genetic component. Heritability (broad sense) was maximum for flowering duration (98.6%) followed by plant height (97.8%). Estimated genetic gain was high for leaf area (66.9%) followed by internodal length (55.2%). Flower number was found positively correlated with plant height, flower stalk length, number of side shoots, plant spread and number of leaves. Path co-efficient analysis showed that stalk length had maximum positive direct effect on number of flowers per plant (2.62) followed by days taken to bud formation (1.13), flowering duration (0.85), number of leaves (0.81), plant spread (0.78) at genetic level. The results suggest that there are sufficient genetic variation available among tested cultivars and can be used for genetic improvement of dahlia.