Maryam Sadat Salamati - Ardestan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ardestan, Iran
Hossein Zenali - Esfahan Agricultural and Natural Research Center, Isfahan, Iran
Ehdi Yousefi - Assist. Prof, Payam Noor University, Isfahan, Iran

In order to study the genetic variation and relationships among traits, an experiment was carriedout on 15 genotypes of Carthamus tinctorius L. under field conditions in randomized complete blockdesign with 4 replications in Payam Noor University, Zavareh. Agro-morphological characters,including seed yield/plant, biological yield, number of capitula per plant, number of seed per capitula,1000- grain weight, number of secondary branches, capitula weight, oil yield and harvest index weremeasured. Results of the analysis of variance showed significant differences among genotypes for allstudied traits (p≤ 0.01). High values of phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation wereobtained for most traits, indicating high variability in the traits under study. Seed yield/plant hadsignificant high and positive correlations with capitula number per plant, seed number per capitula,biological yield and oil yield. Principal component analysis showed three factors that justified 94.33%of the total variation. Cluster analysis grouped the 15 genotypes within 4 clusters, each of whichhaving 9, 2, 1 and 3 genotypes. The clustering pattern of the genotypes revealed that geographicdiversity was not related to agronomic diversity. These results could be useful in choosing genotypesfor intercrossing to develop improved cultivars.

Principal components analysis, Cluster analysis, Genetic variation, Correlation coefficients and Safflower