S Soheilivand - Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute Karaj Iran
Y Agayev - Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute Karaj Iran
A. M . Shakib - Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute Karaj Iran
M Fathi - Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute Karaj Iran

Economical value of saffron is for its flower stigmas. As a result the yield has high relation to the number of flowers. Inbreeding of saffron is very difficult because of its sterility and environmental effects. The purpose of this study is to investigate the diversity in flowering rate. Corms of saffron were collected from two regions of Gonabad and Ghaen and classified on the basis of corm weight. The number of flowers evaluated as five traits of without flower, one, two, three and more than three flowers. Several rows and three set of ten samples from each class were randomly selected and the number of flowers in each plant were counted. The results of flower numbers study showed that the Ghaen population has higher flower mean than that of Gonabad population. Also the ten gram weight corms of Gonabad and 7 g of Ghaen had the most number of flowers and also the least number of plants without flower. Cluster analysis was done by mean of data and Ward method. The populations were classified into three groups. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 g corms of Gonabad was located in first cluster, 3, 4, 5 and 6 g corms of Gonabad with 8 and 9 gram corms of Ghaen in second cluster, 10 g corms of Gonabad with 7 g corms of Ghaen in third cluster indicating that there is no difference for flowering inside each group but there is significant difference between groups.

cluster analysis, flowering