SEED SOURCE VARIABILITY IN HALF SIB FAMILIES OF DIOSPYROS MELANOXYLON ROXB. UNDER OPEN FIELD CONDITION

The performance of thirty phenotypically superior trees in the natural distribution zones of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were studies for seed source variation in Diospyros melanoxylon at School of Forestry and Environment, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad. Diospyros melanoxylon Roxb. is commonly known as tendu, belonging to the family Ebenaceae. Based on the relative magnitude of D2 values thirty superior trees progenies were grouped into six clusters on the basis of morphological and biomass traits. Cluster I exhibited the highest number of eight superior tree progenies. The clustering pattern in this study revealed that superior tree progenies from different geographic region were grouped together in a cluster and vice-versa suggesting that geographical diversity did not necessarily represent the genetic diversity. The contribution of different traits towards diversity revealed that seedling height contributed the maximum towards divergence. The study also 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 were sensitive to environmental fluctuations. The traits with low genetic gain and high heritability indicate that the expression is possibly controlled by intra and inter allelic interactions. The hybridization between the more diverse genotypes of Diospyros melanoxylon can produce genotypes with high heterotic vigor.