Correlation of yield performance with some morphological traits ofCarthamus tinctorius L.

Carthamus tinctorius L., widely used as false saffron, belongs to the Compositae family, which is typically thrives in an arid climate. To study the genetic diversity and relationships among morphological traits, a field experiment was carried out on some Carthamus tinctorius L. genotypes which obtained from the Iran’s Plant Genetics and Genetic Resources. These genotypes were sown in a simple lattice design and some agro-morphological traits, including leaf area, dry weight of plant, plant height, main and lateral pod diameter, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, thousand seed weight, oil percent, biological yield and seed yield were measured. Correlation coefficient analysis revealed seed yield was positively correlated with all the traits except thousand seed weight. All traits were positively, and significantly correlated with except for thousand seed weight. There was a statistically significant and positive correlation among number of pod per plant, main and lateral pod diameter and the other characters except for thousand seed weight. The number of seeds per pod, harvest index, oil percent and oil yield had significant positive correlations with all other measured traits except for thousand seed weight. Therefore, these traits could be considered as the most important for oil yield improvement in Carthamus tinctorius L.