Genetic Diversity and Broad-Sense Heritability of some Morphological Characteristics of Fenugreek under Limited Irrigation

Almost in all parts of Iran, fenugreek has been cultivated as a vegetable and medicinal crop since long times ago, but there are less information about its heritability and breeding. Twenty fenugreek landraces from different parts of Iran were evaluated under normal and limited irrigation conditions at Maragheh dryland agricultural research station during 2008-2009 cropping season using a randomized complete block design with four replications. Results of combined analysis of variance for different morphological traits showed significant differences among landraces for all traits except for harvest index under limited irrigation and in number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant and dry biomass under normal irrigation conditions. Results of cluster analysis(Ward method) divided the landraces into four different groups. The highest genotypic variances was observed in growth habit, growth vigor, thousand seed weight and seed yield per plant under both conditions. Thousand seed weight, days to flowering and plant growth type under both conditions had the highest heritability indicated that, selection for these traits will be efficient in fenugreek breeding programs under limited and non limited irrigation conditions.