Analysis of morphological variation and general combining ability in half sib families of Echinacea purpurea L

Echinacea purpurea L., known collectively as a medicinal species of Asteraceae family, is a perennial herb found in eastern and central United States and southern Canada. Whole parts of the plants, especially their roots contain valuable compounds which are as an immune system booster and blood purifier. Due to Echinacea purpurea L. economical and medical valus, breeding and selection of the superior genotypes for morphological and phytochemical characters is important. To achive the aims, this study were designed to select the best genotypes bassed on evaluation of their progenies in a diverse population. Thus, after land preparation, treated seeds and seedlings of the species were sown on the basis of a simple lattice design with two replications and their phenological stages as well as crop yield and 12 different characters were studied. Analysis of variance of the collected data revealed that the half-sib families were significantly different (p>0.01) based on the studied characters such as leaf area, flowering commencement, bud number, flower number, plant height, flower diameter, plant fresh and dried weight. According to the results, based on the means and GCA of the studied traits such as leaf area, number of buds and flowers, plant height, plant diameter, the number of branches from the base and dried weight, families of the 93, 72, 92 and 97 were the best, for which by combining their parent seeds to form the next improved population might be optimistic.