Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

D2 ANALYSIS IN ANTHURIUM (ANTHURIUM ANDREANUM LIND.)

Manjunath S. Patil and M.V. Dhananjaya

Abstract

Sixteen anthurium genotypes were assessed for the nature and magnitude of genetic divergence among them based on 14 agro-morphological traits following Mahalanobis D2-statistic. On the basis of D2 values, the sixteen genotypes were grouped in to six clusters following Tochers method. The magnitude of D2 values indicated that there is a considerable diversity in the materials studied. The D2 cluster means and inter cluster coverage divergence were utilized for the choice of parents to decide the cross combination to produce heterotic effect. The most divergent clusters were IV and V (D2=97.12) followed by I and V (D2=84.31) and clusters V and VI (D2=80.51). Highest intra-cluster distance was observed in cluster IV followed by cluster 1. Cluster I was largest one containing 7 genotypes from different characters. The clustering patterns of the genotypes were quite at random indicating that the geographical origin and genetic diversity were not related. The characters contributing more towards the genetic divergence were days of interval between two flowers, spadix length, spadix diameter, days taken for stigma receptivity and percent disease incidence.