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Six wheat varieties/lines and six derived F 2 hybrids were studied to ascertain and compare heritability and genetic advance for flag leaf osmotic pressure, flag leaf water potential, flag leaf venation, flag leaf area and flag leaf thickness. Most of these characters had high heritabilities and expected a genetic advance. Prospects of a genetic improvement for all the characters studied are evident. The most promising cross combinations are PASBAN-90 × SARC-5 and SH-2002 × SARC-5. These traits therefore deserve a better attention in future breeding projects for evolving better wheat for stress environments.

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An association between yield components and their direct and indirect influence on the grain yield of wheat were investigated. 24 breeding lines were tested in a randomized complete block experiment design with three replications. According to the results the phenotypic correlation among the traits and their path coefficient were estimated. Positive significant correlation coefficients were obtained for association between survival rate treatment I (0.35*) and III (0.34*), leaf venation (0.51*), stomatal frequency (0.39*), osmotic pressure (0.30*), flag leaf area (0.85*), number of tillers per plant (0.70*) with grain yield per plant at both phenotypic and genotypic levels. A negatively significant correlation between hygrophilic colloids (-0.15*) and epidermal cell size (-0.22*) with grain yield per plant was obtained at phenotypic and genotypic levels. Path coefficients were also computed to estimate the contribution of character to the yield. Path coefficient analysis revealed that flag leaf area (1.34), root/shoot ratio (0.51) and survival rate II (0.56) had the highest positive direct effects on grain yield, while hygrophilic colloids (-0.24) and osmotic pressure (-0.07) had a negative direct effect on grain yield. The results thus obtained suggested that flag leaf area is an important component of yield and hence needs a special attention in selection strategies.