VARIABILITY STUDIES OF SOME BLACK CARAWAY (Bunium persicum BIOSS. FEDTS) ACCESSIONS ACROSS IMPORTANT GROWING SITES OF IRAN

The present study was conducted at KANRRC to analyse the variability parameters of some Bunium persicum accessions during 2010-2015. The analysis of variance exhibited significant variation among the accessions for all the traits under study. Phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was higher than the genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all the traits indicating that all these characters had interacted with the environment. Moderate coefficient of variation (genotypic and phenotypic) was observed for number of seeds umbelt^-1 and plant biomass plant^-1 indicating fair amount of variability present for the traits under mention. High heritability estimates were recorded for all the traits except plant height where the heritability was moderate. High heritability accompanied by high genetic advance was observed for number of seed umblet^-1, umblet plant^-1, total plant weight, number of umbel^-1 and bio yield. The genotype Khajeh forest was significantly superior with regard to number of seed umblet^-1, seed yield, bio yield and yield of essential oil. The accessions viz., Brown Ferdows, Khajeh forest, Chelmir and Chenaran-Frizi were found potential donors for seed yield and yield of essential oils.