Genetic Diversity in Safflower Germplasm of National Plant Gene Bank of Iran

Safflower is the most suitable crop plant for oil production in dry areas and regarding the fact of climate change, it has been come in consideration in recent years. A broad genetic base and rich germplasm is necessary for breeding of this crop. This research was performed in 2011 to investigate variability of safflower germplasm. A total of 345 accessions of safflower collection of National Plant Gene Bank of Iran were planted and evaluated in research field of Seed and Plant Improvement Institute in Karaj. Preliminary evaluation showed that many accessions consisted of several diverse morphotypes, hence, by isolating and morphotype determination, the number of accessions reached to 534, which were investigated in an observational design. The results indicated that corolla color and spine intensity of outer involucral bracts had considerable amount of Shannon index. The highest (85.62) and the lowest (7.24) coefficient of variation belonged to seed weight of single plant and days to flowering, respectively. The first three principal components justified 56.13% of variation, the first one emphasized on yield components and the second on vegetative traits. The accessions were located in five groups by K means clustering method. Distribution of country origin of the accessions was consistent with their geographical situation in some cases. Totally, results showed that the studied accessions have a considerable variation which could be exploited in breeding programs.