Study on Heritability and Genetic Gain in Plus Tree Families of Bauhinia variegata L. in Western Himalayas

Thirty two different seed sources of Bauhinia variegata L. from Himachal Pradesh, Uttranchal, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir were studied for morphological and biomass traits of one year old seedling on the mid hills of Himalayas (at an altitude of 1,350 m). The study showed that the phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was higher than the corresponding genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all the morphological and biomass traits which revealed that the traits are sensitive to environmental fluctuations. The plus tree variance for replication ? family (?2RF) was highest for shoot fresh weight whereas; variance for family (?2F), phenotypic variance among plus tree families (?2P), phenotypic variance among individuals (?2p), additive genetic variance (?2A) were highest for leaf area. However, the heritability on plus tree family basis (h2F), within family basis (h2w) and individual plant basis (h2I) were highest for shoot dry weight. For all the traits, family heritability (h2F) was found higher than the individual tree heritability (h2I) and within plus tree family heritability (h2w). The genetic gain of family selection (GF), total genetic gain (GT) and ratio of genetic gain of family selection and within family selection (GF/GW) were observed maximum for leaf area and seedling height. Therefore, the selection for leaf area and seedling height can give better results than the shoot dry weight for the improvement of these traits through simple selection.