Agro-morphological study on several accessions of garden cress ( Lepidium sativum - Brassicaceae) in Iran

摘要

In this research, the genetic variation of six Iranian garden cress ( Lepidium sativum ) accessions was studied by 21 agro-morphological traits. A significant variation was observed in 6 out of 21 traits including shoot dry weight, petiole length, shoot height in flowering stage, petal length, and sepal length and width. The minimum shoot dry weight was in ‘Ghayen’, while, ‘Isfahan II’, ‘Malayer’ and ‘Varamin’ accessions showed higher weight than average. The shoot dry weight ranged between 0.5-4.3 g. Days to 75% flowering varied from 53 days (Isfahan I and Isfahan II) to 74 days (Ghayen), that the latter would be possible as a source for selection of late maturing types. The principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis were used to identify the patterns of variation and detect the relationships among accessions. The first two PCAs could explain 92.9% of the total variance. Petal length and sepal length and width had the highest positive correlation in PCA1. The PCA2 included shoot dry weight, petiole length and shoot height in flowering stage. In cluster analysis, accessions classified in three major clusters. No relationships were found between genetic variation and geographical origin.