Evaluation of morphological diversity of some populations of Bunium persicum in the Khorasan province of Iran

 In this experiment morphological diversity of seven wild populations of Bunium persicum from Razavi and South Khorasan provinces of Iran were studied. Results showed significant differences among the populations for some morphological traits such as umbellate per umbel, leaf length, number of seeds per plant and inflorescence width. Cluster analysis of morphological traits divided populations into two groups and showed that the geographical and genetic diversity does match. Plant height with number of umbels, leaf length, inflorescence length and width and inflorescence length with inflorescence width had a high positive correlation. principle component analysis showed that four major components accounted 93.81 percent of the total variation, which the first components  including plant height, number of umbels, number of umbellate per umbel, leaf length, inflorescence length and width and number of seeds per plant traits had the most proportion (%52.08). According to obtaining results, populations 1, 2 and 3 due to idealistic traits such as higher values for plant height, leaf length, umbellate per umbel and seeds per plant were the best populations for breeding improved varieties and domestication