Genetic Variability Studies on Morphological Characterization for Floral, Vegetative and Corm Attributes of Saffron (Crocus sativus L.)

A study on genetic variability among selected lines of saffron was conducted at Advanced Research Station for Saffron and Seed Spices (ARSSSS), Dusso Konibal, Pampore, SKUAST-Kashmir during cropping season 2017-18. The "Saffron (Crocus sativus L.)" germplasm was evaluated to collect data on genetic variability for 18 floral, vegetative and corm traits and data were recorded on 10 randomly selected and tagged competitive plants. The traits studied are given as; number of flowers corm-1line-1, number of days to 50% flowering, fresh flower weight corm-1line-1, inner tepal length, outer tepal length, inner tepal width, outer tepal width, anther length, anther width, style length, stigma length, fresh pistil weight corm-1line-1, dry pistil weight corm-1line-1, leaf length, number of leaves corm-1, number of days to 50% sprouting, Big Corm Index, Multiplication Index. It was observed that there were significant variations among populations for all the traits studied, number of flowers corm-1line-1 (5.04-37.67), fresh pistil weight corm-1line-1 (106.78- 1301.12mg), stigma length (2.66-4.26cm), leaf length (17.11-38.15cm), multiplication index (3.08-5.01), number of leaves corm-1line-1 (7.06-12.45), fresh flower weight corm-1line-1(1.89-13.37mg) indicating presence of high level of variability and therefore imply considerable scope for saffron improvement through clonal selection. Estimates of genotypic variance were higher than the corresponding estimates of phenotypic variance, and the genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) was greater than the phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) thereby revealing minimum influence of environment in the expression of the traits studied except dry pistil weight and stigma length ( actual economic part) which reveals higher phenotypic variance and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) thereby revealing strong influence of these environment on these two parameters Therefore, the selection of ecotypes based on phenotypic values can be a perfect criterion for selection for genetic advancement and therefore needs to be more focused and made selection based on these two parameters could be a good idea in economic point of view. Based on variability studies, it can be paramount in understanding the extent of variability and possibilities of its future utilization in subsequent breeding programme.