Fifty-one inbreds and three checks of sunflower were laid in a randomized complete block design following recommended package of practices. Correlation studies revealed that seed yield was positively and significantly associated with seed volume weight, hull percentage, percent autogamy, days to 50 percent flowering and oil yield. Oil content was positively associated with plant height, number of leaves per plant, seed volume weight, hull percentage, head diameter, percent autogamy, days to 50 percent flowering, 100-seed weight, seed yield and oil yield. Path coefficient analysis for seed yield at phenotypic level showed that the direct effect was maximum for oil yield followed by 100-seed weight. The maximum indirect effect for seed yield was minimum through oil yield, while it was through yield per plant for oil.

The analysis of variance of 51 inbreds and 3 checks revealed significant differences for all 15 characters studied. The range of variation was maximum for percent autogamy followed by plant height and oil yield, while it was lowest in the case of days to 50 percent flowering and stem girth. The magnitude of variation was maximum for oil yield, 100-seed weight, head diameter, percent autogamy, husk percentage, seed density, plant height, seed test weight and oil content. Except for oil content, all other characters studied were least affected by environment showing a close correspondence between phenotypic co-variance (PCV) and genotypic co-variance (GCV). High heritability estimates were obtained for all the characters studied except for oil content, the value of which was moderate. High heritability coupled with the high genetic advance was recorded for plant height, percent autogamy, percent seed set and yield per plant. High heritability along with low genetic advance was observed for the number of leaves per plant, head diameter, stem girth, days to 50 percent flowering, 100-seed weight and oil yield, suggesting that these characters cannot be effectively improved by selection.

Genetic divergence of 51 inbreds and 3 checks of sunflower was assessed using the Mahalanobis D 2 statistics. Fifty-one sunflower inbreds plus three checks, GAUSUF-15, TNASUF-7 and TNAU-1, of diverse geographical origin, were grouped into eight clusters which were not related to their geographic origin. Stem girth and seed yield per plant contributed the most to the total genetic divergence. Maximum inter-cluster distance was observed between the inbreds grouped in clusters I and V containing five and twelve inbreds, respectively, while the intra-cluster distance ranged from 0 to 2306.05. Based on mean performance, genetic divergence and clustering pattern, few inbreds namely CMS-234B, 7-1-B, CMS-597B, CMS-852B, ARM-250B, ARM-245B, HAM-69, ARM-284B, ARM-247B and HAM-174 were considered as potentially important for further breeding programs.

The present study floral biology and ancillary characteristics of Bambara groundnut used SB-42, Uniswa Red, S-165-A, S-193 and nine isolated gamma irradiated stabilized mutants of SB-42 for this investigation. Mutant 11 produced significantly maximum number of pods per plant (46.05 g/ plant) and seed yield per plant (28.96 g/plant), compared to control SB-42 (40.85 g/plant, 20.54 g/plant) respectively. Results obtained from flower biology studies were, Inflorescence-Simple Racemes, Flower-Bracteates, Zygomorphic, Hermaphrodite, Pedicellate, hypogynous, Calyx-sepal 5, gamosepalous, valvate aestivation, Corolla-petals 5, Polypetalous, Papilionaceous with a standard (vexilum/banner) petal, 2 wing petals(Alae) and 2 keel petals (Carinea), Androecium-stamens 10, Didelphous condition (9+1), Gynoecium-Ovary superior, Floral formula-Br Brl % K (5) C 1+ 2 + (2) A 9+1 G (1).

An experiment was carried out during 2009-2010 on one hundred tamarind genotypes of the Nallur tamarind grove, a few kilometres away from Bengaluru International Airport, to investigate the genetic variability, character association and their direct and indirect effects on the fruit weight of tamarind. The genotypic coefficient of variation was high for seed weight, fibre weight, seed number, beak length and fruit weight. In all cases, phenotypic variances were higher than the genotypic variance. Moderate to high heritability as well as genetic advances were estimated for pod length, pod width, seed weight, seed number, number of ridges, number of furrows, pulp weight and fruit weight indicated that these traits was under additive gene control and selection for genetic improvement for these traits would be effective. Correlation studies revealed the highest significant association of fruit weight with seed weight followed by pulp weight, epicarp weight and seed number at genotypic and phenotypic level. Positive direct effects were produced by pulp weight and seed weight, while number of ridges had negative direct effects. The information obtained from the current studies can be used as selection criteria for genetic improvement of tamarind genotypes under study. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sja.v12i1.21109 SAARC J. Agri., 12(1): 20-25 (2014)