Evaluation of genetic diversity of Anethum graveolens L. different ecotypes based ‎on morphological traits and essential oil percentage of shoot

Dill (Anethum graveolens L.) is one of the most important vegetables that has valuable medicinal properties, including anti-flatulence, stomach acid, and difficulty removing. Identification of dill native ecotypes is considered as one of the most important steps in the field of cultivation improvement and breed of this product. In order to evaluate the genetic diversity in different ecotypes of dill based on morphological traits, an experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Based on the results of analysis of variance, the studied ecotypes were significantly different in most traits. According to the comparison of mean results, the average maximum plant height (80.02 cm), stem length (69.55 cm), stem diameter (2.95 mm), shoot fresh weight (6.36 g) and shoot dry weight (1.78 g) was belonged to Urmia ecotype. The correlation results showed that there was a significant correlation between most of the studied traits. Based on factor analysis, the first factor explained 33.95% of the variance in which most of the vegetative traits included. Based on cluster analysis, 30 ecotypes were divided into four different groups and there were significant differences, especially for the shoot yield between the groups. According to the results of stepwise regression, internode spacing and leaf length were entered into the model. In general, the results of this study showed that dill ecotypes collected from different parts of Iran have a high diversity in most of the studied traits and valuable ecotypes can be found among them.