Genotypic variation in pod and seed characteristics among clones of Dalbergia Sissoo in a clonal seed Orchard

Abstract

Dalbergia sissoo Roxb. (Shisham) is considered a multipurpose tree species due to its various uses as timber, shelter, fuelwood and fodder. Due to commercial importance in timber Industry, tree improvement of species is essentially required for genetic upliftment of the species. Under World Bank (FREE) project of ICFRE, tree improvement activities were accentuated towards development of seed orchards. CSO at Lacchiwala, Dehra Dun is an effort towards this direction to produce genetic seeds. The genetic base of CSO was comprised of 31 selected clones from India and Nepal. At 14 years of age, pods were assessed for characteristics like pod length, width, number of seeds/pods, weight of 100 gm pods while for seed characters, length and width of seeds was assessed. Results show that there is a significant genetic variation among clones at 0.1% level with respect to all parameters studied. Clone No. 60 belonging to Chicchrauli (Haryana) performed best with respect to all pod and seeds parameters followed by Clone 10 (Pathri, Uttrakhand) hence these can be used for bulk production of nursery stock. The linear inter-character correlations were estimated using Karl Pearson’s correlation matrix. Simple correlation matrix revealed that all fruit and seed characteristics had significant positive correlation except seed length and seed width which were negatively correlated (r = - 0.313).