Abstract

Heterosis and inbreeding depression in 10 crosses derived from 7 diverse parents and genetic variability studies in safflower was carried out during rabi 2009-10. The experimental material comprising of 20 populations and 7 parents for eight different quantitative characters revealed considerable amount of genetic variation for all the characters studied. Most of the characters were less influenced by the environment as minor differences were recorded between genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation. High heritability with high genetic advance was observed for number of capsules per plant, number of seeds per capitulum, test weight and seed yield which might be due to additive gene effects. Heterosis and inbreeding depression was observed positive in direction for most of the characters studied. Maximum heterosis was recorded for number of seeds per capitulum followed by number of capitula per plant and seed yield.

Keywords: Safflower, heterosis, inbreeding depression