GENETIC VARIABILITY IN HERACLEUM CANDICANS WALL

Abstract

The roots of Herac1eum candicans are rich source offurocoumarins,having photosensitizing property. The species showed wide range of variability for furocoumarin yield as brought out through high phenotypic, genotypic and environmental variances. In all the population collections studied at two locations, genotypic variances were higher than the environmental variances except for plant height, tap root length and secondary root length. Genotypic coefficient of variability (GCV) has showed similar trend; heritability ranged between 60.6% for root length to 98.30/. for furocoumarin content. High heritability was accompanied by genetic gain of same intensitywhich reflects the presence of high additive genetic component for these parameters and can be utilized in selection of high furocoumarin yielding line as part of crop improvement.