COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF YIELD AND ANATOMICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF SIX FLAX GENOTYPES

Abstract

two field experiments were conducted at Giza Agric. Res. Station Farm, Agric. Res. Center during the two successive seasons 2012/2013 and 2013/2014. The main objective of this study was to evaluate six flax genotypes for yield and its components, study also anatomical manifestation in the flax main stems at two regions (the middle and at the top of technical stem length) and the transverse sections in seeds. The obtained results can be summarize as follow: The flax variety Giza 10 achieved highest estimates in total plant height, technical stem length , upper branching zone length , straw yield/plant as well as per fad., fiber yield for either per plant or fad., fiber percentage , fiber length and fiber fineness. While, Sakha 3 ranked second in most economic straw traits, the two flax strains i.e., S.402/2 and S.22 were the latest in this case. The strain 22 occupied the first position and surpassed all the five genotypes in no. of capsules/plant , capsules set % , no. of seeds/plant , seed oil percentage , seed yield/fad. and oil yield/fad. The flax variety Giza 8 ranked second in most of seed characters , but the fewest one was Giza 10. Correlation coefficient (r) values were highly significant and positive between total plant height and each of technical stem length, straw yield/plant, fiber yield/plant, fiber percentage and fiber length. While r values were only positively significant with no. of basal branches, fiber fineness and seed yield/plant. Relation between no. of capsules/plant and each of capsules set % and seed yield/plant were highly significant and positive, but it was only significantly positive with no. of seeds/plant and seed oil percentage. Giza 10 variety achieved maximum fiber area/cross section and fiber index estimates (fiber per plant in volume) at either the middle or the top region of flax stem, while S.22 was the lowest in this respect. The majority of different tissues in the transverse section were greater in middle region of stems than in the top of technical length section, except with the cortex area for Sakha 1, Sakha 3 and Giza 10 which took the opposite direction. The flax strain 22 seeds performed highest cotyledons area % per the corresponding total cross section area, the descending arrangement in this case was Giza 8, Sakha 1, S.402/2 , Giza 10 and Sakha 3.