Genetic Divergenence in Pod and Seed Traits of Robinia pseudoacacia Linn. in North Kashmir Himalayas, India

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted to record variation of pod and seed traits among nine seed sources of Robinia pseudoacacia Linn. Study of variation is the first step for any breeding programme.Significant variations (p<0.05) were recorded for different morphological parameters of seed and seedling among the different provenances. Pods were collected from nine seed sources of Kashmir valley. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences among the pod and seed traits, thus exhibiting more variability. Seed source (S2) exhibited outstanding performance for the pod and seed traits (pod length- 72.66 mm; pod width- 13.57mm; seeds per pod- 7.92), whereas S9 showed the lowest values for pod length as 60.98mm) and S8 recorded minimum values  for  pod width (11.13mm) and number of seeds per pod (4.55). Maximum seed weight among sites (24.05 g) was observed in S2 and it was found statistically at par with S4 (24.02 g) and followed by S6 (24.00 g) with minimum observed in S7 (22.66 g). Furthermore, this variability appeared to be geographically structured and would be mainly genetically controlled.