Effect of morphological trait variance on plant yield in different Trigonella foenum-graecum L. varieties

摘要

Trigonella’s rich biochemistry globally signifies it as a medicinal herb. India is the largest producer and exporter of Trigonella seeds. Its products are used on a large scale as raw material preparation of food and are also used in cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry especially for steroid hormones synthesis. Therefore, to meet global production requirements, superior trait varieties are in constant demand. In the present investigation, seeds of ninety T. foenum-graecum L. varieties from and around the most productive Trigonella belt in India were collected. The varieties procured from the States of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana were employed to study nine quantitative and nine qualitative traits. These traits include plant height, pods per plant, seeds per pod, yield per plant, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, days to field emergence, pod length, branches per plant, plant growth habit, leaf margin, leaf margin pigmentation, leaf tip, number of pods per axis, seed color, seed size, seed luster and plant category. The numerical data obtained was subjected to analysis of variance, genotypic and phenotypic variance, heritability, path coefficient analysis, genetic advance, coefficient of variance and analysis of variance, covariance, multivariate analysis and cluster analysis. Traits profoundly contributing towards yield were traced as growth habit, flowering date, branches, and pods per plant and seeds per pod. Path coefficient analysis revealed that seeds per pod had highest positive impact on yield per plant followed by pods per plant, branches per plant, plant height and days to 50% flowering. Therefore, it is concluded that high heritability estimates would be of great significance for breeding programs to attain superior varieties on the basis of phenotypic performance.