Study of relationship between morphological traits and flowering in Iranian garlic clones

This research was designed to identify garlic (Allium sativum L.) bolting clones and determining the relationship between their morphological traits and bolting capacity by using statistical methods of analysis of variance, comparison of means, correlation coefficients, factor analysis, stepwise regression, path analysis and cluster analysis. Traits including flowering ability, number, length and width of leaf, position of the longest leaf, length and diameter of pseudostem, weight of bulb and clove, number of cloves in bulb, percent of clove dry matter and yield were investigated in 30 Iranian garlic clones. Results of analysis of variance showed significant difference in all studied traits of clones. Coefficients of correlation test showed that there was significant negative correlation between bolting and number, length and width of leaf, position of the longest leaf, diameter of pseudostem, weight of bulb and clove, number of clove in bulb and yield; and significant positive correlation with length of pseudostem and clove dry matter percentage. Factor analysis test showed that in first factor, the most positive coefficient was related to number and width of leaf, diameter of pseudostem, weight of bulb and yield, and in second factor, the most positive coefficient was related to length of leaf, length of pseudostem and weight of clove. Stepwise regression Analysis showed that leaf number per plant, length of pseudostem and length of leaf had the highest correlation with bolting. In addition, path analysis showed that, the number of leaves per plant and length of leaf had the highest direct negative effect on bolting whereas pseudostem length had the highest direct positive effect on bolting. Acording to cluster analysis of traits, all clones were divided into two main clusters including bolting and non-bolting. Results of this study showed that some morphological traits such as less leaf length, more length of pseudostem and fewer leaf numbers per plant, could be used as a morphological markers in breeding programs and garlic seed production.