Assessment of genetic diversity of different fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) ecotypes based on morpho-phenological traits

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.), belonging to Apiaceae family, is one of the oldest medicinal plants. Knowing the genetic diversity is an important factor in each breeding program. The aim of this study was to characterize fennel ecotypes based on morpho-phenological traits and determine the genetic diversity based on the phenotype. In this study, 32 different fennel ecotypes were evaluated in a p-rep augmented design in the garden of Faculty of Agriculture, University of Birjand. Traits including the number of days to 50% flowering, days to 50% maturity, plant height to main umbel, total plant height, number of main branches per plant, number of umbels per plant, effective umbels per plant, number of umbelets per main umbel, number of seed per umbel, internode length, number of internodes, and grain yield were measured. According to REML analysis, significant differences were observed among different fennel ecotypes for most of the traits studied. The estimated broad-sense heritability of traits ranged from 14 to 93 percent. The desirable traits to improve selection efficiency were the number of seeds per main umbel, number of umbels per plant, number of umbelets per main umbel, and number of umbels, which showed positive significant correlation with grain yield. The results of biplot analysis showed that ecotypes of Ahvaz, 54, Kerman, Neyriz and Razan were superior for most of the traits. Cluster analysis grouped the ecotypes into two clusters. According to the results of this study, there is a significant variability among the fennel ecotypes studied. Thus, crossing between superior ecotypes of each cluster and testing their progeny through breeding and selection will help to produce cultivars with desirable agronomic characteristics.