Summary
Germ plasm collections of safflower, Carthamus tinctorius L. were evaluated for variability and divergence in two traits which are strongly influenced by the environment, viz. length of the growing period from planting to flowering (GPPF) and plant height. The test locations were: Bet-Dagan, Israel, 1969, about 2000 lines; Logan, Utah, USA, 1964, about 1000 lines; Washington, USA, 1959, 339 lines. Natural selection produced a wide range of variation for length of the GPPF: there were considerable differences between introductions from the same countries. Divergence between lines within countries for GPPF length was so extensive that there was little evident divergence between regions. Generally lines from the Indian subcontinent, Egypt, Morocco, Spain, Portugal and France were earlier, while those from Turkey and Ethiopia were later. Some significant but inconsistent correlations were obtained between the length of the GPPF and other traits measured in Utah. It was not significantly correlated with yield and yield components or with oil content. Therefore, selection can be applied for a shorter GPPF without effecting yield or oil content.
Plant height variations between lines from the same countries were very high in all test locations, still divergence between regions was apparent. The means of the lines from the Indian subcontinent were the lowest while those of the lines from Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and Ethiopia were the highest in all the locations tested. Plant height was not correlated significantly with yield/plant and yield components in the Indian and Egyptian lines, and with yield and some components in the Iranian lines. Therefore, it appears possible to breed shorter, high yielding varieties.
The correlations of GPPF and of plant height between test locations though low, were highly significant. Generally, the lines maintained their developmental pattern (early vs. late, short vs. tall) in the different nurseries, but there were position changes within the groups.
Similar content being viewed by others
Literature
Anonymous: BMD — Biomedical Computer Programs. Dixon, W.J. (Ed.), p. 341–356, Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press, 1967
Ashri, A.: Evaluation of the world collection of safflower, C. tinctorius L. I. Reaction to several diseases and associations with morphological characters in Israel. Crop Sci. 11, 253–257 (1971a)
Ashri, A.: Evaluation of the world collection of safflower, Carthamus tinctorius L. II. Resistance to the safflower fly, Acanthophilus helianthi R. Euphytica 20, 410–415 (1971b)
Ashri, A.: Divergence and Evolution in the Safflower Genus, Carthamus L. Final Res. Report presented to the A.R.S., U.S.D.A., Beltsville, MD., U.S.A., pp. 180 (1973)
Ashri, A.: Evaluation of the germ plasm collection of safflower, Carthamus tinctorius L. V. Distribution and regional divergence for morphological characters. Euphytica (in press)
Ashri, A.; Knowles, P.F.: Cytogenetics of safflower (Carthamus L.) species and their hybrids. Agron. J. 52, 11–17 (1960)
Ashri, A.; Knowles, P.F.; Urie, A.L.; Zimmer, D.E.; Cahaner, A.; Marani, A.: Evaluation of the germ plasm collection of safflower, C. tinctorius L. III. Oil content and iodine value and their associations with other characters. Econ. Bot. (in press)
Ashri, A.; Zimmer, D.E.; Urie, A.L.; Cahaner, A.; Marani, A.: Evaluation of the germ plasm collection of safflower, Carthamus tinctorius L. IV. Yield and yield components and their relationships. Crop Sci. 14, 799–802 (1974)
Beech, D.F.: Safflower. Field Crop Abstr. 22, 107–119 (1969)
Chavan, V.M.: Niger and Safflower. Indian Central Oilseeds Committee, Hyderabad, India, pp. 57–150 (1961)
Creech, J.L.; Reitz, L.P.: Plant germ plasm now and for tomorrow. Adv. Agron. 23, 1–49 (1971)
Frankel, O.H.: Evaluation and utilizationintroductory remarks. IN: Genetic Resources in Plants — Their Exploration and Conservation. Frankel, O.H.; Bennett, E. (Eds.), p. 395–401. Oxford: Blackwell Sci. Publ. 1970
Frankel, O.H., Bennett, E.: Genetic resources in Plants — introduction. Ibid.. Frankel, O.H.; Bennett, E. (Eds.), Oxford: Blackwell Sci. Publ., 7–17 (1970)
Hanelt, P.: Zur Kenntnis von Carthamus tinctorius L. Kulturpflanze 9, 114–145 (1961)
Hanelt, P.: Monographische Übersicht der Gattung Carthamus L. (Compositae). Feddes Repertorium 67, 41–108 (1963)
Knowles, P.F.: Safflower — production, processing and utilization. Econ. Bot. 9, 273–299 (1955)
Knowles, P.F.: Safflower. Adv. Agron. 10, 289–323 (1958)
Knowles, P.F.: Centers of plant diversity and conservation of crop germ plasm: Safflower. Econ. Bot. 23, 324–329 (1969)
Krull, C.F.; Borlaug, N.E.: The utilization of collections in plant breeding and production. IN: Genetic Resources in Plants — Their Exploration and Conservation. Frankel, O.H.; Bennet, E. (Eds.) p. 427–439. Oxford: Blackwell Sci. Publ. 1970
Kupsow, A.J.: The geographical variability of the species Carthamus tinctorius L. (in Russian) Bull. Appl. Bot. Genet. Pl. Br. 9th Ser. 1, 99–181 (1932)
Obeso, E.: Nuevas lineas de cartamo con las caracteristicas de enanismo y precocidad. Agricultura Tecnica en Mexico 3, 376–379 (1975)
Sokal, R.R.; Rohlf, F.J.: Biometry, p. 235–246, 685–687. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman x Co. 1969
Weiss, E.A.: Castor, Sesame and Safflower, pp. 529–744. London: Leonard Hill 1971
Zimmerman, L.H.: Effect of photoperiod and temperature on rosette habit in safflower. Crop Sci. 13, 80–81 (1973)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by H. Stubbe
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ashri, A., Zimmer, D.E., Urie, A.L. et al. Evaluation of the germ plasm collection of safflower Carthamus tinctorius L. VI. Length of planting to flowering period and plant height in Israel, Utah and Washington. Theoret. Appl. Genetics 46, 359–364 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00281678
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00281678