Variability, heritability and genetic advance for yield and yield contributing characters in Oroxylum indicum (L.) Vent: A threatened medicinal tree

Abstract

The experiment was conducted during 2016-2017 at Division of Plant Genetic Resources, ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (ICAR-IIHR), Hessarghatta, Bengaluru. Genotypic variability, heritability and genetic advance for yield and yield contributing traits were studied in ten Oroxylum indicum (L.) Vent. accessions. Data were recorded for plant height (m), stem girth (cm), leaf length (cm), leaf width (cm), petiole length (cm), leaf area (cm2), number of pods per tree, pod length (cm), width of pod (cm), number of seeds per pod, pod yield (kg/plant). Among different yield attributing characters studied, the highest magnitude of PCV and GCV were recorded in leaf area (26.869 and 27.827 %), number of pods per plant(36.593 and 37.610 %) and pod yield per plant (46.319 and 46.912 %).High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent over mean was recorded for the characters viz., leaf length (90.30 %), petiole length (85.20%), leaf area (93.20 %), number of pods per tree (94.70 %) and pod yield per plant (97.50 %).Hence, these characters were predominantly governed by additive gene action and could be used as a selection criterion for breeding programmes in the future.