Spiny trunk in Caspian locust (Gleditsia caspica) and its variation in half-sib progenies

Caspian locust (Gleditsia caspica Desf) is a low demanding and adaptable species to the unsuitable environmental conditions, with several characteristics making it distinct from many other plant species. Spiny trunk is one of its characteristics for which its application in civil environments, parks and gardens is highly restricted. There are great deals of variation in the spiny trait between the single trees of the species, which is not yet enough information on their genetic nature. To answer the question, 21 genotypes of the species were preliminary studied. Seven morphological characteristics including the spine frequency on the stems of the progenies of the genotypes were studied in a completely randomized design with three replications. Approving significant differences between the progenies of the genotypes, the genotypes were classified by principal components and cluster analysis. The studied genotypes were significantly different based on all of the recorded traits. There was variability of 1 to 3.09 between the progeny means for spiny stems. The means of spiny trait of the studied progenies coordinated with their parental trees. Principal components and cluster analysis divided the progeny means into two distinct groups so that the first group members were all highly spiny and the second group members were in opposite side. The results indicated that the existing variation could be used in the future studies for improving non-spine trunk variety of the species.