Characterization and clustering of safflower germplasm based on seed morphological traits

Abstract

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is a minor oilseed crop that originated in the Middle East. Characterization and clustering analysis of genotypes are basic and necessary biometrical tools to assess the variations present in the collection. The present investigation was carried out to study important seed morphological traits viz., area, perimeter, width, length, aspect ratio, radius and circularity by using the camera attached microscope (Euromex Image Focus Plus software) in 60 safflower genotypes obtained from the Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research (IIOR), Hyderabad. The maximum area, perimeter, length and width were documented in CO-1 (36.03 mm 2 ), CO-1 (25.73 mm), GMU-3438 (9.70 mm) and C0-1 (5.79 mm), respectively. The genotypes GMU-900, GMU-1920 and GMU-4035 exhibited significance for all the traits. In cluster analysis, seven clusters were formed with 7, 6, 6, 8, 16, 1 and 16 genotypes in clusters I, II, III, IV, V, VI and VII respectively. Clusters mean values indicated that, clusters I and II were more diverse and clusters II and VI were close to each other. Based on the aspect ratio cluster VI genotypes contained conical shape seed and cluster I contained the oval shape of seed. Based on circularity, cluster I, IV and III genotypes contains circular bold seeds. The genotypes viz., GMU-900, GMU-4035, GMU-3785, GMU-6944, GMU-1193, GMU-2020 and GMU-2366 present in cluster I recorded larger area and perimeter.