Preliminary Evaluation of Progenies of Native and Foreign Cultivars of Hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) for Selecting Genotypes Adapted to Climat Conditions of Karaj

Characteristic identification of local and foreign hazelnut cultivars and their hybrids was the purpose of this research. Male parents Gercheh and Gerdoii and female parents Fertile, Pashmineh, Rasmi, Round, Shastak, Negret and Paeezeh with high yield and performance were selected. Fourteen crossing combinations were made and the obtained hybrids were evaluated based on ten morphological traits including vegetative growth, shoot length, shoot diameter, leaf length, leaf width, internode length, petiole length, total chlorophyll, chlorophyll a, and chlorophyll b. The experiment was conducted in a complete randomized design. Analysis of variance indicated that the parents and progenies were significantly different for all examined traits. Fertile × Gercheh and Rasmi × Gercheh progenies exhibited the lowest internode length and Gerdoii, Gercheh and Rasmi × Gerdoii exhibited the highest shoot length. Total chlorophyll, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b levels were higher in parents than progenies and Rasmi × Gercheh hybrid had the highest chlorophyll a, and chlorophyll b among the hybrids. Cluster analysis classified parents and progenies into four main groups.