Evaluation of Drought Tolerance of Safflower Lines Based on Tolerance and Sensitivity Indices to Water Stress

This experiment was conducted to evaluate drought tolerance of selected lines from local populations of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) at the Research Farm of Isfahan University of Technology in 2002. In this study, the 12 selected safflower lines from different local populations along with two exotic cultivars and a local population were evaluated at two different irrigation regimes, using a randomized complete block design with three replications. The first and second irrigation regimes were based upon the depletion of 50% and 85% of soil moisture content, respectively. The results showed that there were significant differences (p<0.01) among the genotypes for seed yield in both irrigation regimes. Also, the interaction between genotypes and irrigation regimes was significant (p<0.05). Based upon the genotype by environmental interaction analysis (method of Sneller and Dombek), the genotype H27 had the highest tolerance to drought stress, and its seed yield in the first and second irrigation regimes was 3353 and 3072 kg/ha, respectively. The growing variety in Isfahan province (Koseh population) was the most sensitive genotype to the drought stress and had a seed yield of 3525 and 2394 kg/ha in the above irrigation regimes, respectively. The assessment of different water stress indices (SSI, STI, TOL, GMP and MP) revealed that STI seems to be the most suitable index for recognizing the more tolerant genotypes to drought conditions and based on this index, E2428 was the most tolerant genotype, and the exotic cultivar of Ac-Sunset (from Canada) was the most sensitive one. The seed yield for genotype E2428 was 4174 and 3458 kg/ha, and for the genotype Ac-Sunset was 2004 and 1438 kg/ha in the first and second irrigation regimes, respectively.