Effect of Various Floral Morphometric Characters on the Seed Set in Linum usitatissimum (L.) Griesb

Abstract

This work is unique in that the relationship between floral traits and seed yield has not been previously studied. All characters show high heritability with high genetic advance except the characters like bud breadth, petal breadth and female reproductive organ length. They show moderate heritability with moderate genetic advance. The present finding suggest that these characters are additive in nature and could be improved by direct selection. High heritability estimates also indicates that major portion of genetic variability was owing to additive gene action. Most of the characters under this heading showed high heritability with high genetic advance. The high heritability with moderate genetic advance has been observed for the characters like seed per capsule, vegetative and reproductive phase length, harvest index and fruit breadth. Highly significant positive correlation coefficient has been observed seed breadth with fruit length, seed length with flower length, petal breadth, ovary length , breadth and fruit length. Fruit length with bud length, breadth , flower length ,breadth, sepal length , filament length, anther length , female reproductive organ length and ovary length. The female reproductive organ length with bud length, flower breadth, sepal breadth, petal breadth, style and stigma length and ovary length. The bud breadth with bud length. The path coefficient analysis indicated that characters like male reproductive organ length, sepal length, pedicel length and ovary length showed the main contribution towards flower breadth. Hence maximum emphasis should be given for these characters during selecting for improvement in flower breadth , because flower breadth provide more space for insect pollination and helping to get hybrid seeds.